culture and social practice · 2020-04-03 · tobias haller (prof. dr.), born 1965, is a professor...

Tobias Haller, Claudia Zingerli (eds.)Towards Shared Research

Culture and Social Practice

Tobias Haller (Prof. Dr.), born 1965, is a professor at the Institute of Social An-thropology at the University of Bern, Switzerland, with a focus on economic, ecological, and political anthropology.Claudia Zingerli (PhD), born 1973, is a scientific collaborator at the Swiss Natio-nal Science Foundation and freelancer in diverse activities dealing with know-ledge brokerage and the co-creation of knowledge in science-policy interfaces.

Tobias Haller, Claudia Zingerli (eds.)

Towards Shared ResearchParticipatory and Integrative Approaches

in Researching African Environments

http://dnb.d-nb.de

https://www.transcript-verlag.de

[email protected]

This book was possible because of the perseverance of the authors and the financial support from the Swiss Academy of Humanities and Social Sciences, the Swiss Academy of Sciences, the Swiss Academic Society for Environmental Research and Ecology (saguf) and the Swiss Society for African Studies (SSAS).

Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche NationalbibliothekThe Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Na-tionalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available in the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (BY) license, which means that the text may be be remixed, transformed and built upon and be copied and redistributed in any medium or format even commercially, provided credit is given to the author. For details go to http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Creative Commons license terms for re-use do not apply to any content (such as graphs, figures, photos, excerpts, etc.) not original to the Open Access publication and further permission may be required from the rights holder. The obligation to research and clear permission lies solely with the party re-using the material. First published in 2020 by transcript Verlag, Bielefeld© Tobias Haller, Claudia Zingerli (eds.)

Cover layout: Maria Arndt, BielefeldCover illustration: Women engaging in shared research regarding the develop-

ment and testing of cook stoves at the Great African Cook-Off in Malawi, one of the examples in the book on how participatory research is carried out suc-cessfully (see paper by Jewitt et al., © picture: Charlotte Ray and Maria Beard).

Printed by Majuskel Medienproduktion GmbH, WetzlarPrint-ISBN 978-3-8376-5150-8PDF-ISBN 978-3-8394-5150-2https://doi.org/10.14361/9783839451502

Contents

Foreword 9

Towards collaborative and integrative research in African

environments

An introduction

Tobias Haller and Claudia Zingerli ...................................................................... 11

1.1. African environments in focus................................................................... 11

1.2. Spiralling (mis)interpretations .................................................................. 12

1.3. Fragmented knowledge .......................................................................... 14

1.4. Longitudinal knowledge guidance for researching African environments today .. 16

1.5. Towards shared research ........................................................................ 18

1.6. Overview of contributions ........................................................................ 19

1.7. References ........................................................................................... 21

Soil classifications

Between material facts and socio-ecological narratives

Brice Prudat, Lena Bloemertz, Olivier Graefe, Nikolaus Kuhn.................................. 25

2.1. Introduction..........................................................................................25

2.1.1. Ohangwena region and villages........................................................26

2.1.2. Collecting local soil knowledge ........................................................ 27

2.1.3. Scientific soil description.............................................................. 28

2.1.4. The Oshikwanyama soil units ..........................................................29

2.1.5. Local soil types compared to international classifications ................... 30

2.1.6. Advantages of combining local and scientific knowledges ................... 32

2.2. Issues regarding the participatory approach in natural sciences .................... 33

2.2.1. Translations of the concept of “soil” ................................................ 33

2.2.2. Intergrades ................................................................................ 34

2.2.3. Local experts ............................................................................. 35

2.2.4. Accuracy of descriptions............................................................... 35

2.3. Participatory research in natural sciences: reflections and challenges ............ 39

2.3.1. Expectations and managing data ................................................... 39

2.3.2. Dealing with complexity .................................................................40

2.4. Conclusion and perspectives .................................................................... 41

2.5. References .......................................................................................... 43

Action research and reverse thinking for anti-desertification

methods

Applying local revegetation techniques based on the ecological

knowledge of local farmers in the Sahel of West Africa

Shuichi Oyama .............................................................................................. 47

3.1. Introduction.......................................................................................... 47

3.2. Desertification in the Sahel region............................................................ 48

3.3. Approach and research area ................................................................... 50

3.4. Agriculture in long-term dry season and short rainy season ...........................52

3.4.1. Temperature, rainfall and wind ........................................................52

3.4.2. Agriculture .................................................................................54

3.4.3. Soil properties and land degradation ............................................... 55

3.5. Local countermeasures against land degradation ........................................59

3.5.1. “Waste is manure for our farmland”.................................................. 61

3.5.2. First trial of urban waste-induced land restoration ............................ 63

3.5.3. Emerging pastureland .................................................................. 66

3.6. Eight effects of urban waste use for land restoration ................................... 68

3.6.1. Safety issues with urban waste ....................................................... 72

3.6.2. Collecting waste from the city administration to resolve the financial

deficit problem ............................................................................ 73

3.6.3. Inviting livestock into the fenced pastureland .................................... 77

3.7. Conflict prevention and livestock-induced land restoration ............................ 79

3.8. Conclusion: urban waste, new institution and combating desertification ......... 83

3.9. References .......................................................................................... 86

Energy and the environment in Sub-Saharan Africa

Household perceptions of improved cookstoves

Sarah Jewitt, Peter Atagher, Mike Clifford, Charlotte Ray and Temilade Sesan ........... 91

4.1 Introduction.......................................................................................... 91

4.1.1. The evolution of improved cookstove initiatives.................................. 91

4.1.2. Recent initiatives promoting clean fuels and cookstoves .....................92

4.1.3. Neglect of end-user preferences .....................................................94

4.1.4. Limitations of fuel and ICS monitoring ..............................................95

4.1.5. Research problem and contribution .................................................96

4.2. Methodological approaches......................................................................96

4.2.1. Bake/cook-off events ................................................................... 98

4.2.2. Field-based research in Benue State ................................................99

4.2.3. Field-based methodologies ............................................................ 101

4.3. End-user priorities for cooking systems: results from the bake/cook-off

events .............................................................................................. 103

4.4. Community-level perspectives on cooking systems and fuel choices in Benue . 108

4.4.1. Class and gender as influences on ICS and fuel use .......................... 108

4.4.2. Access to firewood ...................................................................... 109

4.4.3. Smoke-related concerns versus household budget constraints ............. 110

4.4.4. Socio-cultural factors influencing stove and fuel stacking ................... 111

4.4.5. User preferences for rapid cooking ................................................ 114

4.4.6. Seasonal shifts in stove and fuel use ............................................... 114

4.5. Incorporating end-user preferences into stove interventions and SDG7 mon-

itoring frameworks................................................................................ 115

4.6. References .......................................................................................... 119

Fishing for food and food for fish

Negotiating long-term, sustainable food and water resources in a

transdisciplinary research project in Burkina Faso

Gabriele Slezak, Jan Sendzimir, Raymond Ouedraogo, Paul Meulenbroek, Moumini

Savadogo, Colette Kabore, Adama Oueda, Patrice Toe, Henri Zerbo and Andreas

Melcher ..................................................................................................... 125

5.1 Research context ................................................................................. 125

5.1.1. The establishment of a transdisciplinary research project ................... 126

5.1.2. Integrating practices of participatory research ................................. 127

5.1.3. Project results ........................................................................... 130

5.1.4 Issues with the participatory approach ........................................... 132

5.1.5. Fieldwork - practice and training ................................................... 133

5.1.6. Involvement of policy makers - key questions of management............. 139

5.1.7. Synthesis of research results ......................................................... 141

5.1.8. SUSFISH’s participatory approach: lessons learned and problems ......... 147

5.2. Key moments of participatory research.................................................... 150

5.2.1 Scenario development workshops - key to understanding ................... 150

5.2.2. The debate is open: translational practices to negotiate meaning ........ 153

5.2.3. The debate on gender................................................................... 156

5.3. Conclusion and main learnings ................................................................ 159

5.4. References ......................................................................................... 162

Conclusion

Explorations and lessons for shared research

Claudia Zingerli and Tobias Haller .................................................................... 167

6.1. Explorations......................................................................................... 167

6.2. Learning as a multidimensional and multilevel process ................................ 169

6.3. Dimensions of participatory research ....................................................... 172

6.4. Role of language and translation in interdisciplinary and intercultural re-

search settings .................................................................................... 173

6.5. Turning points in collaborative research processes ..................................... 175

6.6. Towards shared research ....................................................................... 176

6.7. References ......................................................................................... 178

Authors ................................................................................................... 181

Foreword

In October 2015, a diverse group of scholars of different disciplinary (huma-

nities, social and natural sciences) and geographical origins and at different

academic career stages met for a conference on “Participatory and Integrati-

ve Approaches in Researching African Environments: Opportunities, Challen-

ges, Actualities in Natural and Social Sciences”. All of them camewith an open

multidisciplinary perspective and portrayed in fascinatingly transparent ways

their approaches and searches for a more inclusive and better understanding

of knowledge about African environments. Some presenters focused on their

methodological attempts to structure problem framings and knowledge pro-

duction processes in transdisciplinary ways, including not only scientists but

also stakeholders from local contexts of environmental resource use, adminis-

tration and policy. Some gave insights into critical reflections on global policy

frameworks, categorizations and interpretations and their (mis)fits with local

realities, highlighting the diversity of knowledge and techniques for dealing

with environmental and social change.

Four points emerged from the conference regarding the process of what

we called shared research.

• Unintended and unanticipated chances and challenges emerge in collab-

orative (participatory and integrative) research on African environments.

Being open to and respectful of local level actors enhances learning and

joint contributions to facilitate a common understanding of key aspects

in researching African environments.

• Reflecting critically on research processes and multiple expectations by

formulating (in writing or speech) deeper insights and discomfort affects

the dimensions of learning. A change of perspective on the research pro-

cess can shift paradigms and epistemological traditions.

• Doing participatory and integrative research on African environments

means being explicit about research ethics and the role of those who get

10 Foreword

in and out of a local context. For more inclusive learning, mutual respect

and trust are key.

• Transdisciplinary research needs careful planning of participation and an

openness towards emerging participation while the research progresses.

All in all, it was rich learning experience with conference participants who

dared to talk about their struggles with language and interpretation and sci-

ence as contribution, which is often not possible in disciplinary conferences.

Participants facilitated a better understanding of complex socio-political and

environmental systems. The conference participants enjoyed the contributi-

ons and discussions to the extent that the idea of further elaborating on some

of the topics emerged. In the form of an edited volume, which provides ample

room for each contribution to go into detail, the authors present their contri-

butions in explicit and nuanced ways.

Finally, the volume is put together as a collection of four articles dealing

with similar challenges, opportunities and actualities. The authors were gi-

ven a lot of room for exploration during the writing process, from which four

heterogeneous papers emerged. In the introductory and concluding articles,

the editors highlight and provide a discursive framework in which the ar-

ticles can be positioned. They discuss key issues for an audience interested

in reflections and twists in relation to participatory and integrative research

in intercultural, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary interfaces in selected

African environmental contexts.

The editors are very grateful to the Swiss Academy of Humanities and

Social Sciences for financial support for both the conference and the publi-

cation of this book, particularly the Open Access publication grant. We also

highly acknowledge the financial contributions of the Swiss Academy of Sci-

ences, the Swiss Academic Society for Environmental Research and Ecology

(SAGUF), and the Swiss Society for African Studies (SSAS). We are indebted

to Samuel Weissman, who supported the process in critical stages.

Bern, January 2020

Tobias Haller and Claudia Zingerli

1. Towards collaborative and integrative

research in African environments

An introduction

Tobias Haller and Claudia Zingerli

1.1. African environments in focus

The legacy of the colonial gaze at African environments has been an issue in

critical studies in the humanities and some natural sciences for more than 30

years now. Fuelled by the emerging political ecology approach (see Robbins

2004), research and publications have radically challenged the way the post-

colonial world views African environments. One of this view’s cornerstones

was the award-winning publication Misreading the African landscape (Fairhead

and Leach 1996), in which it became evident that forest patches in the Gui-

nean Savannah were not pristine remains of a large forest cover destroyed

by local people. On the contrary, the authors showed that forest patches were

planted and thus created by local people formultiple purposes.This new para-

digm that so-called natural environments are not purely natural but cultural

landscaped ecosystems has been an important narrative in ecological anthro-

pology, with its roots in the 1980s and 1990s (see Roy Ellen’s 1982 milestone

book on subsistence production or Netting’s Smallholders, householders in 1993).

However, this paradigm shift remained bound in the sub-discipline and did

not extend into other disciplines or even interdisciplinary arenas.

Fairhead and Leach’s 1996 book was vital for a paradigmatic and discursive

shift. It marked a wider recognition in the interdisciplinary and transdiscipli-

nary worlds, because it combined sound social anthropological qualitative re-

search with historical archive research, andmore quantitative data stemming

from air photography, including digital satellite images from geographic and

remote sensing. This mixed methods approach established the basis for da-

ta, contributing to a wider recognition of the paradigm shift and challenging

12 Tobias Haller and Claudia Zingerli

previously held views - views that were based on negative labelling of people

in African environments as trapped in a tragedy of environmental degrada-

tion; views that were very deeply rooted in the colonial discourse regarding

the need to protect forests and wildlife from damage caused by the overuse of

natural resources by local people (see Haller and Galvin 2011, Neumann 1998);

views that called for the preservation of “pure” nature, which had to be carried

out by outside “civilized” actors and was part of colonial legitimacy, which is

carried on today among many conservationist views (see Brockington et al.

2008, Galvin and Haller 2008).

For looking at African environments, their reading through scientific, so-

cietal and political lenses, and interpretations about their emergence and use,

the merit of the book lies not only in its mixed methodology; it lies in the in-

tegrative turn in social anthropological research which created room for the

way research was conducted on the ground. Fairhead and Leach (1996) we-

re very open to different local views and conceptualizations of the so-called

environment in their research and to local explanations of why the forests

looked like they did. From that emerged a more participatory research agen-

da, being open to the way local people viewed the environment and developed

cultivation strategies for these forests. Without such an approach, these new

scientifically ground-breaking insights could not have been discovered. The

authors learned about how people perceived themselves symbolically andma-

de analogies to different animals such as termites in the environment, while

at the same time indicating techniques and reasons for forests ranging from

shade to economic, religious and political reasons (such as defence). These

views were embedded in spiritual worldviews, which placed local people in a

world interacting with spirits and ancestors, and so being aware from their

own animistic religious perspective (the emic view) that they are not alone

in this cultural landscape ecosystem but that there is a need to interact and

communicate ritually with this spiritual world (see Haller 2019a, 2019b).

1.2. Spiralling (mis)interpretations

The colonial and post-colonial conservation gaze on the environment and on

people living in that cultural landscape ecosystemwas not simply misread but

was coupled with an incomplete and biased analysis, which, however, beca-

me politically important.The idea that drought in the area was caused by local

clear-cutting of an anticipated full pristine forest covering the whole zone led

Towards collaborative and integrative research in African environments 13

to repressive colonial and post-colonial policies and the labelling of people as

forest or savannah people. It is part of what James Scott (1998) called “seeing

like a state”, by which he meant numbering, standardizing and labelling the

environment and its people for policy action and control.This process created,

and still creates, rules which are not only not adapted to local contexts, but

that also led to political subordination and, as a consequence, to more degra-

dation, creating what is called a “positive feedback loop” in system theory.The

reinforcing of wrongly labelled pristine nature in peril led to repressive polici-

es which, as a reaction from local stakeholders, leads to destructive counter-

reactions as property rights are taken out of the hands of local people. When

local people lose their common property rights to land and land-related re-

sources as a form of colonial and post-colonial commons grabbing, they lose

their sense of ownership and belonging. The reaction is like the one descri-

bed by Hardin (1968), yet not as a tragedy of the commons but as a tragedy

of the grabbed commons, leading to state control and, as states are not effi-

cient at controlling, to the tragedy of open access. Cases in Africa such as in

Guinea, Tanzania, Cameroon, Zimbabwe and Zambia show that local people

rather destroy forests and wildlife under these conditions of grabbing before

others take the resources, and without wildlife present, for example, conser-

vationists will leave the land to the people as there is no longer any reason for

protection (see Murphree 2001, Haller 2010, 2016).

Such counter-reactions unfortunately can then again be taken by conser-

vationists as proof that Africans only see charcoal and game meat for the pot

behind forests and wildlife, reinforcing a process of fortress or top-down so-

called participatory approaches to conservation (see Galvin and Haller 2008,

Haller et al. 2016). Thus, the African environment and the people living in

and from it deserve adequate research and analysis that is translated into

adequate policies. This is then a political process to be addressed. We need

not be naïve and think that the paradigm shift will change all, as this view

produced gains and obligations since colonial times which could not and still

cannot today be challenged quickly. We would have to focus on authoritati-

ve power and considerable financial implications, and internationalized and

interdependent spheres of environmental policy and economics.


1.3. Fragmented knowledge

Regarding the paradigm shift, it needs to be highlighted that the main pro-

blem with the ideology of pure nature is the separation of nature and culture

(see Descola 2013). This separation has been a main feature of Cartesian thin-

king and logical reasoning since the time of enlightenment. We do not argue

here that insights in that historic period are necessarily wrong, but that they

led to the hegemonic view that modernity produces scientifically objective

knowledge, while all older and other forms of knowledge and views are seen

to be backward and tied to a dark age. Previous or other societies are labelled

“traditional”, while other ways of looking at what we call the environment are

overlooked and their heritage remains largely unaddressed, without history

and knowledge.

This view also begs a historical and environmental reality check.Wherever

one studies the state of a common pool of resources - irrespective of how bad

the figures and numbers might be - one must acknowledge that the biggest

loss of landscapes and biodiversity occurred after and not before the age of en-

lightenment and the ages of colonial expansion.This basically means that the

biodiversity which is lost now was there before colonialization with the pre-

sence of local peoples - and the work of Fairhead and Leach (1996) and others

suggests that this biodiversity existed because of local people’s management

of resources.

Around the globe, cultural landscape ecosystems have been developed over

centuries based on the views, regulations (institutions) and uses (practices)

of local peoples. The term “institution” refers to formal and informal dos and

don’ts, or to the rules of the game (see North 1990), as well as property rules,

regulations of use, norms and practice-induced values (see Ensminger 1992,

Haller 2010).These institutions are also full of condensed knowledge and ser-

ve as an orientation for collective action tomaintain cultural landscapes based

on the wisdom that interactions with the environment (the cultural landscape

ecosystem context) need coordinated action with other humans and other

groups of humans (the political environment) as well as with the world of

spirits and souls of the material and immaterial and ancestors (the spiritu-

al environment) (Haller 2007, 2010). Not taking this knowledge into account

during colonial and post-colonial times, however, did not only reduce socio-

cultural aspects; it also had a negative impact on the environment on several

levels. It reduced knowledge on how to deal with the created landscapes and

how to maintain and manage them (see Bornemann et al. 2017). A reduced


knowledge base results in degradation of these cultural (and natural) lands-

capes.

Therefore, there is a claim to recognize knowledge among local groups.

Alexander von Humboldt (1852, Lubrich 2009) was not so much the one dis-

covering and “inventing nature” in the Americas - as Wulf (2016) makes us be-

lieve - but the one discovering complex interrelationships between different

factors such as climate, topography, vegetation and soils, as well as animals

and humans transforming these environments. On his journeys through La-

tin America, Humboldt realized that landscapes had been inhabited and that

colonialization left massive tracts in the landscapes and altered them. He was

therefore interested in the views of local people in the same way as he was

interested in the data gathered by his instruments and the information he re-

ceived from other scholars. He realized before the debate on the nature-cul-

ture divide in humanities and natural sciences that local indigenous groups

did not make this division, a fact highlighted later on by scholars such as Tim

Ingold (2000) and explicitly by Philippe Descola (2013). Their emphasis, es-

pecially by Descola, on animistic and totemistic worldviews, characteristic of

local peoples’ environmental worldview, was to show the notion local groups

had of not being alone but rather embedded in a much larger environment.

The result of that relationship is an emic view of mutual interaction between

the material and the spiritual.

On the other hand, the Cartesian separation on which natural science is

based created a new construction of nature as not influenced by humans.

Humboldt was exceptional as he was not guided by this divide in his scientific

curiosity but thought in terms of interrelations and was interested in diffe-

rent views. On the one hand, he focused on natural science methodology and

gathered quantitative data, but on the other hand, he was interested in the

views and knowledge other peoples had on how the environment functioned.

In addition, he paid attention to their practices and rationales by gathering

information on their views on processes in the environment, which he consi-

dered to be information as important as the natural science data.What is un-

clear with Humboldt is the question of whether he considered local people as

creating cultural landscape ecosystems. However, on his journeys throughout

the Americas he recognized the infrastructure created by the Incas as equal

to the infrastructure created by the Roman Empire, and he explained envi-

ronmental changes such as low water levels of lakes as stemming from the

colonial practice of plantation economy, and thus the altering of forest cover

as a major cause. Similarly, he described the use of guano (a natural fertili-


zer stemming from bird dung on islands) as being sustainably managed by

the Incas, which means he knew the impact local peoples had on a resource

that can be overused if not managed carefully (Humboldt 1853). Therefore, we

argue that he was also attentive to the historical processes of altering of the

landscape by humans, both indigenous and immigrants through the colonial

process, and he criticized the latter for their unsustainable resource manage-

ment.

1.4. Longitudinal knowledge guidance for researching Africanenvironments today

By allowing plural views and putting them into historical contexts, Humboldt

was the first scholar to use what we call a participatory research orientation.

This orientation is the basis of Fikret Berkes’ (1999) work, who gave sense to

Humboldt’s thinking without actually referring to Humboldt. Berkes tried to

show the differences and similarities between the scientific and local indige-

nous peoples’ thinking, and reached the following conclusions by studying the

knowledge systems of First Nation peoples in the US and in Canada. The ba-

sic difference between the natural scientific and local indigenous knowledge

is that the latter is not expert knowledge: it is not developed by someone di-

stant, but is locally embedded, and it is related to practice and transmitted

through generations. It thus has what natural science knowledge often lacks:

a longitudinal basis of accumulated knowledge that can also be very adaptive

through time.The basic similarities between natural science ecosystem know-

ledge and indigenous ecological knowledge can be seen in the way both know-

ledge systems try to reduce complexity and are interested in experimenting.

By this, Berkes - like other scholars, such as Paul Richards (1985) -means being

engaged in processes of trial and error in the field, for example in agriculture,

by trying out different crop varieties, irrigation patterns, etc. Both knowledge

systems deal with practical notions, but the indigenous system focuses cen-

trally on the issue of risk management to secure livelihoods, as some authors

have shown in relation to hunter-gatherer societies (Sahlins 1972, Winterhal-

der and Smith, 1985, and many others), pastoral societies (Homewood 2008,

McCabe 1990), agriculturalists (Ellen 1982, Netting 1993, Richards 1985), and

many mixed forms (hunting and horticulture, agro-fishery-pastoralism, fi-

shing-agriculturalists), as well as resource-based occupational groups being

interrelated (arrangements between farmers, fisheries and nomadic pastora-


lists) (for a summary, see Haller 2007, see also Haller 2010, 2013, 2016, Haller

et al. 2013).

There is a lot of accumulated practical knowledge handed down over ge-

nerations and adapted to local changing conditions in these societies, which

basically work on the principle of longitudinal knowledge of dynamics and

expected variability in the cultural landscape ecosystems. The basic common

strategy is not to drive for the best but for maximization of the minimal nee-

ded yields, catches, game hunted etc. Such a mini-max strategy (see Hal-

ler 2007) can only work by diversifying uses and accumulating generatio-

nal knowledge on environmental dynamics in cultural landscape ecosystems.

Complementarily, local peoples have developed worldviews which help to ex-

plain uncertainty and often provide ritual practices to bring (from an emic

perspective) an unbalanced human-spiritual world relationship back into ba-

lance. These elements - knowledge, resource management and practices on

the one side, as well as worldviews - are interconnected on the level of what

Berkes (1999) calls social institutions.

Where this works, the results of adapting to changes such as economic

and climatic changes produce better solutions on several levels. Firstly, local

actors have a more longitudinal knowledge of their environments, and inter-

acting on a shared level with scientists can only be beneficial for both sides

if science shows more openness. Secondly, adapted rules based on older so-

lutions and knowledge reduce transaction costs in a tremendous way, as fee-

ling a sense of ownership of the knowledge production and crafting proces-

ses creates among local people the feeling that the new institutions are theirs

and derive from their knowledge. This embodiment of a sense of ownership

of the institution-building process, which has been labelled “constitutionali-

ty” (as a counter-position to Foucault’s “governmentality” and Arun Agrawal’s

“environmentality”) as a collective conscious way of creating institutions (see

Haller et al. 2016, 2018) shows very positive effects in a new more sustainable

way for resource management. As new literature on Africa shows (Chabwela

and Haller 2010, Faye et al. 2018, Haller et al. 2013, Haller and Merten 2008,

2018), supported for other places in the world (see the 2018 special issue of

Human Ecology, volume 46, issue 1), a process of shared research is needed to

develop locally rooted and sustainable institutions.

Therefore, shared research is a central step to such institution crafting,

and a process where we still need to learn more. In the history of anthropo-

logy, we find such approaches in what was called action anthropology (since

1950, but discontinued; see the work of Sol Tax in Foley 1999) and applied an-


thropology (from 1980 onwards; see Bennett 1996, Rylko-Bauer et al. 2006).

Researching African environmental contexts with explicitly inclusive lenses

regarding co-researching and co-learning can fuel this learning process.

1.5. Towards shared research

When organizing the conference “Towards Shared Research: Participatory

and Integrative Approaches in Researching African Environments: Oppor-

tunities, Challenges, Actualities in Natural and Social Sciences” in 2015, we

hoped to profit from rare cases of in-depth insights into the research process

and the diversity of knowledge and perspectives about African environments.

The conference participants openly debated and challenged their shared

research experiences, wherein lies a learning potential with paradigmatic

dimensions. All the papers included in this book stem from a deep reflection

on and a curiosity in local contexts, but they also show the challenges and

turning points in interdisciplinary research and local people-researcher in-

teractions. Researchers in this edited volume have different social and natural

sciences and engineering backgrounds, in which an interest in the practice

of the “other” and challenges were central to reaching more collaboration and

mutual learning. The learning in researching African environments happens

on at least two levels: 1) among disciplines of different science domains;

and 2) between researchers and the researched. Co-experimenting at these

two levels is something which we see in all the papers. It allows reflection

on political-historical and power-specific contexts and enables a better

understanding of other positions and views (see Zingerli 2010). That again

facilitates the notion of co-learning as a basis for shared research. Coming

back to the contributions by Fairhead and Leach (1996), shared researchmight

continue to trigger paradigmatic shifts, indicating that numerous variables

and different views are of value and shape the way we perceive what is

important about the environment and development in African environments

today.

For our interpretation of shared research based on the contributions

united in this book, we used a framework according to which the presentati-

ons can be positioned. It includes the following four elements:

• Learning as multidimensional and multilevel processes in extended time

and scale.


• Dimensions of participatory research.

• Role of language and translation in interdisciplinary and intercultural re-

search settings.

• Turning points in collaborative research processes.

In the last chapter, we address each of the elements as a stimulus for fur-

ther thought and exploration towards collaborative and integrative research

in African environments.

1.6. Overview of contributions

The following four original contributions are grouped under two headings: 1)

Contextualizing soil fertility; and 2) Negotiating knowledge and technological

inventions in intercultural settings.

The two articles by Prudat et al. (“Soil classifications: Between material

facts and socio-ecological narratives”) and Oyama (“Action research and re-

verse thinking for anti-desertification methods”) both take a focus on soil,

soil fertility and soil management in arid sub-Saharan African environments.

Prudat et al.’s geographical context is north-central Namibia, while Oyama’s

study sites are in south-west Niger.

Prudat et al. set out in 2014 to compare local knowledge on soils with two

international soil classification systems. They had designed their study from

a natural science perspective, focusing on describing soils in a scientific way.

The long fieldwork enabled them to delve deep into the complexities of local

knowledge about soils and to reflect thoroughly on what it means to give jus-

tice to the diversity of local perspectives and to make use of complementary

knowledge of soil and soil management.The paper shows what a shared rese-

arch offers, acknowledging soil as part of a human-made landscape and soil

knowledge as part of a socially constructed knowledge. On the other hand, the

emic, i.e. local way of understanding soil characteristics has limits that an ob-

jectivized soil classification can counterbalance in soil management decision-

making. Prudat et al. offer an honest reflection on environmental scientists

that enhance their natural sciences’ “socialization” through participatory re-

search methods and observation among the Oshikwanyama in north-central

Namibia.

Local knowledge of soil and soil management is also a focus for Oyama,

who draws on a series of research stays in south-western Niger spanning mo-


re than 15 years of participatory research. Oyama’s contribution evolves in the

context of combating desertification, but it draws attention to wicked pro-

blems that manifest in local settings, including the pressure for farmland that

reduces pastureland, with ever more livestock and lingering social conflicts.

His contribution to enhancing soil fertility and land management can be read

as a quest to mitigate a situation of environmental and socio-political stress.

Because the author demonstrates high engagement in actual fieldwork and

participatory observation, he creates social relations to experiment with and

scientifically measures local techniques for improving soil conditions. What

he refers to as “reverse thinking” is to apply and test a locally emerging soil

management technique for its potential to create plots for enhanced soil fer-

tility and more productive biomass production for livestock herding. What is

counter-intuitive from an environmental point of view is the application of

solid waste from the city to abandoned and degraded soils. Oyama portrays

positive effects on both soil fertility and land management between Hausa

farmers and Fulbe herders. Despite large scale programmes to combat de-

sertification in the region, local communities organize themselves for higher

productivity. Oyama’s action research approach is an interesting and puzzling

contribution to dealing with a wicked problem.

The two contributions by Jewitt et al. (“Energy and the environment in sub-

Saharan Africa: Household perceptions of improved cookstoves”) and Slezak

et al. (“Fishing for food and food for fish: Negotiating long term, sustainable

food and water resources in a transdisciplinary research project in Burkina

Faso”) emerge from European-African research collaborations in which the

negotiation of knowledge and technological inventions in intercultural set-

tings plays a big role. The paper by Jewitt et al. presents an excellent oppor-

tunity to discuss the development of technical innovations based on a health-

environment-technical approach.The article explores the evolution of impro-

ved cookstove initiatives and looks at initiatives promoting clean fuels and

cookstoves. Its analysis evolves against the background of specifically desi-

gned events called “bake/cook-offs”. The international group of researchers

organized cooking events in three largely different settings in order to collect

end-users’ views. The first bake-off took place in England, with the partici-

pation of immigrants and refugees; later, the bake/cook-offs were organized

in Malawi and Zambia as well as in Benue state, Nigeria, the latest accompa-

nied by fieldwork. This participatory approach to experimenting and testing

makes contributions beyond the health-environment-technology approach.

It shows the potential of end-users’ views and cultural considerations in pro-


cesses aimed at introducing new or alternative technologies. It is helpful in

understanding the level of adoption of a technology and the power of co-crea-

tion of knowledge.

Co-creation of knowledge is a key focus of Slezak et al.’s contribution. It

provides a thick account of shared research activities in the fisheries in Bur-

kina Faso. It also shows that merely trying to be interdisciplinary and trans-

disciplinary in a European-African research collaboration does not suffice,

as hegemonies from male-dominated natural science and hegemonic post-

colonial biases prevail. The case shows that such problems can remain un-

recognized and that conflicts are perhaps needed to draw attention to these

issues. The paper also addresses other views, which appear in the discussion

of differences regarding gender, culture and multiple languages involved.The

paper shows that the richest experiences and learnings stem from joint work-

shops and storytelling approaches, along with long-term interactions in the

field. However, these require time and intensive interactions diverse partici-

pating actors in international, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary project

collaborations.

1.7. References

Bennett, J. W. (1996). Applied and action anthropology: Ideological and con-

ceptual aspects. Current Anthropology, 37(1), 23–53.

Berkes, F. (1999). Sacred ecology. Traditional ecological knowledge, and re-

source management. Philadelphia: Taylor and Francis.

Berkes, F. and Folke, C. (eds.). (2000). Linking social and ecological systems.

Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Bornemann, B., Bernasconi, A., Ejderyan, O., Schmid, F., Wäger, P., Zingerli,

C. (2017). Research on natural resources: The quest for integration revis-

ited. GAIA, 26(1), 16-21.

Brockington, D., Duffy, R. and Igoe, J. (2008). Nature unbound: The past,

present and future of protected areas. London: Earthscan.

Chabwela, H. and Haller, T. (2010). Governance issues, potentials and failures

of participatory collective action in the Kafue Flats, Zambia. International

Journal of the Commons, 4(2), 621–642.

Descola, P. (2013). Beyond nature and culture. Chicago: University of Chicago

Press.


Ellen, R. (1982). Environment, subsistence and system. The ecology of small-

scale social formations. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Ensminger, J. (1992). Making a market.The institutional transformation of an

African society. Cambridge UK: Cambridge University Press.

Fairhead, J. and Leach, M. (1996). Misreading the African landscape: Society

and ecology in a forest-savanna mosaic. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Uni-

versity Press.

Faye, P., Haller, T. and Ribot, J. (2018). Shaping rules and practice for more

justice. Local conventions and local resistance in Eastern Senegal. Human

Ecology, 46(1), 15–25.

Foley, D. E. (1999).The Fox project: A reappraisal. Current Anthropology, 40(2),

171–192.

Galvin, M. and Haller T. (eds). (2008). People, Protected Areas and Global

Change. Participatory Conservation in Latin America, Africa, Asia and

Europe. Perspectives of the Swiss National Centre of Competence in Re-

search (NCCR) North-South 3. Bern: Geographica Bernensia.

Haller, T. (2007). Is there a culture of sustainability? What social and cultural

anthropology has to offer 15 years after Rio. In: Burger, P. and Kaufmann-

Hayoz, R. (eds.). 15 Jahre nach Rio – Der Nachhaltigkeitsdiskurs in den

Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaften: Perspektiven – Leistungen – Defizite

(pp. 329–356). Bern: Schweizerische Akademie der Geistes und Sozialwis-

senschaften.

Haller, T. (ed.). (2010). Disputing the floodplains: Institutional change and

the politics of resource management in African wetlands. African Social

Studies Series 22. Leiden: Brill.

Haller, T. (2013). The contested floodplain: Institutional change of the com-

mons in the Kafue Flats, Zambia. Lanham: Lexington.

Haller, T. (2016). Managing the commons with floods: The role of institutions

and power relations for water governance and food resilience in African

floodplains. In: Ostegard, T. (ed.). Water and food: Africa in a global con-

text (pp. 369–397). London: The Nordic African Institute.

Haller, T. (2019). Towards a new institutional political ecology: how to marry

external effects, institutional change and the role of power and ideology

in commons studies. In: Haller, T., Breu, T., de Moor, T., Rohr, C., Znoj,

H. (eds.). The Commons in a Glocal World: Global Connections and Local

Responses (pp. 90-120). London: Routledge.


Haller, T. (2019). The different meanings of land in the age of neoliberalism:

Theoretical reflections on commons and resilience grabbing from a social

anthropological perspective. Land, 8(7), 104.

Haller, T., Acciaioli, G. and Rist, S. (2016). Constitutionality: Conditions for

crafting local ownership of institution – Building processes. Society and

Natural Resources, 29(1), 68–87.

Haller, T., Belsky, J.M. andRist, S. (2018).The constitutionality approach: Con-

ditions, opportunities, and challenges for bottom-up institution building.

Human Ecology, 46(1), 1–2.

Haller, T., Fokou, G., Mbeyale, G. and Meroka, P. (2013). How fit turns into

misfit and back: Institutional transformations of pastoral commons in

African floodplains. Ecology and Society, 18(1), 34.

Haller, T. and Merten, S. (2008). “We are Zambians – don’t tell us how to fish!”

Institutional change, power relations and conflicts in the Kafue Flats fish-

eries in Zambia. Human Ecology, 36(5), 699–715.

Haller, T. and Merten, S. (2018). Crafting our own rules: Constitutionality as a

bottom-up approach for the development of by-laws in Zambia. Human

Ecology, 46(1), 3–13.

Haller, T. and Galvin, M. (2011). Challenges for participatory conservation in

times of global change: Lessons from a comparative analysis and new de-

velopments. In: Wiesmann, U. and Hurni, H. (eds.). Research for Sus-

tainable Development: Foundations, Experiences, and Perspectives (pp.

467–503). Perspectives of the Swiss National Centre of Competence in Re-

search (NCCR) North-South 6. Bern: Geographica Bernensia.

Hardin, G. (1968).The tragedy of the commons. Science, 162(3859), 1243–1248.

Homewood, K. (2008). Ecology of African pastoralist societies. Oxford: James

Currey.

Humboldt, A. (1852). Personal narratives of travels to the equinoctial regions

of America. London: Henry G. Bohn.

Humboldt, A. (1853). The isthmus of Darien. Letter from Baron Alexander

von Humboldt to Lionel Gisborne, Esq., M. A., C. E. Translated from the

French original by The New York Times, NY.

Ingold, T. (2000). The Perception of the Environment. Essays on livelihood,

dwelling and skill. London, New York: Routledge.

Lubrich, O. (ed.). (2009). Über die Urvölker von Amerika und die Denkmäh-

ler, welche von ihnen übrig geblieben sind: anthropologische und ethno-

graphische Schriften. Fundstücke 27. Hannover: Wehrhahn.


McCabe, T. (1990). Turkana pastoralism.A case against the tragedy of the com-

mons. Human Ecology, 18(1), 81–103.

Netting, R. (1993). Smallholders, householders: Farm families and the ecology

of intensive, sustainable agriculture. Stanford, CA: Stanford University

Press.

Neumann, R. P. (1998). Imposing wilderness. Struggles over livelihood and

nature preservation in Africa. Berkley, CA: University of California Press.

North, D. (1990). Institutions, institutional change and economic perfor-

mance. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Richards, P. (1985). Indigenous agricultural revolution. Ecology and food pro-

duction in Africa. London: Hutchinson.

Robbins, P. (2004). Political Ecology: A Critical Introduction. Blackwell,

Malden.

Rylko-Bauer, B., Singer, M. and Van Willigen, J. (2006). Reclaiming applied

anthropology: Its past, present, and future. American Anthropologist,

108(1), 178–190.

Sahlins, M. (1972). The original affluent society, in Stone Age economics.

Chicago, IL: Aldine.

Scott, J. C. (1998). Seeing like a state: How certain schemes to improve the

human condition have failed. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Winterhalder, B. and Smith, E. A. (1985). Hunter-gatherer foraging strategies.

Ethnographic and archaeological analysis. Chicago: University of Chicago

Press.

Wulf, A. (2016). Alexander von Humboldt und die Erfindung der Natur. Mu-

nich: Random House GmbH.

Zingerli, C. (2010). A sociology of international research partnerships for sus-

tainable development. European Journal of Development Research, 22(2),

217-233.

2. Soil classifications

Between material facts and socio-ecological

narratives

Brice Prudat, Lena Bloemertz, Olivier Graefe, Nikolaus Kuhn

2.1. Introduction

Local environmental knowledge and enhanced community participation in

research and implementation have been used for a better understanding of

the lack of new technology implementation in local communities - for examp-

le, for water management or agriculture. The benefits of local knowledge can

be tapped by including farmers and their understandings of local needs in

economic development. Local soil knowledge is “the knowledge of soil pro-

perties (…) possessed by people living in a particular environment for some

period of time” (Winklerprins 1999: 151). This knowledge integrates various

environmental (e.g. soil, climate) and social criteria (e.g. techniques or la-

bour force availability) that influence soil productivity. Local soil typologies

are the way soils are named and grouped, and they aim to describe the local

environment in order to support people to fulfil local necessities, such as for

steady food production under high rainfall variability (Barrera-Bassols et al.

2006). Integrating local soil typologies and technical knowledge - for examp-

le, provided by international soil classifications - as much as possible without

losing the essence of one or the other aims tomake local environmental know-

ledge accessible to outsiders.The integration of local and technical knowledge

intends finally to improve agricultural management practices (Winklerprins

1999). The comparison and combination of these typologies require building

an important body of knowledge that includes farmers’ and scientific soil

knowledge. However, the translation, simplification and codification of this

new mixed knowledge is often found to be the cause of the failure to use local

knowledge for development (Briggs 2013, Pottier et al. 2003). Although these

26 Brice Prudat, Lena Bloemertz, Olivier Graefe, Nikolaus Kuhn

processes are necessary to transfer explicit information to a wider audience

(externalization), more sharing and a participatory research agenda are hel-

pful.

The issues raised in using this mixed knowledge are that local soil know-

ledge is fragmentary and dynamic, and therefore difficult to translate into

or combine with more centralized, international and static knowledge sys-

tems (Agrawal 1995, Rathwell et al. 2015, Sillitoe, 2010). Local soil types are

not strictly defined and are described on a comparative basis (Sillitoe 1998),

and can therefore vary from one village to another (Barrera-Bassols and Zinck

2003) depending on the socio-cultural context (Sillitoe 1998) and the local en-

vironmental conditions (Niemeijer and Mazzucato 2003). This flexibility and

dynamism pose fundamental challenges to scientific endeavours focusing on

the (more) strict, systematic and context-independent classification of objects

(Ellen et al. 2000, Hobart 2002, Pottier et al. 2003).

In this article, we will spell out what it means to do environmental rese-

arch in the interplay of local, implicit soil knowledge and international, expli-

cit soil classification. We will contextualize the Oshikwanyama soil typology

from north-central Namibia and its relation to international classification,

and discuss the advantages of local knowledge for soil quality assessment.

Thereafter we will reflect on issues regarding the collection, translation and

selection of local soil knowledge. As a part of this, we will reflect on the ex-

perience of participatory approaches from the perspective of the first author,

trained as a natural scientist.

2.1.1. Ohangwena region and villages

Ohangwena region in north-central Namibia is characterized by the en-

dorheic Cuvelai drainage basin in the westernmost part and the Kalahari

Sandveld in the central and eastern part (Figure 1). The climate is semi-arid

and subtropical, with large inter- and intra-annual variability (Mendelsohn

et al. 2000). Oshikwanyama-speaking communities immigrated into today’s

Ohangwena region during the late nineteenth century and moved eastwards

during the first decades of the twentieth century (Kreike 2004). The Cuvelai

drainage basin has to a large extent been converted into crop fields for small-

scale (1-4 ha) non-commercial agriculture of rain-fed pearl millet (Pennisetum

glaucum; Mendelsohn et al. 2000).

For our study, we selected three village areas in the western Ohangwe-

na region, based on dialect homogeneity (Oshikwanyama) and environmental

Soil classifications 27

Figure 1: Overview of Africa, Namibia and north-central Namibia

Maps of Africa, Namibia and a satellite image (maps.google.com, retrieved in July 2016)

of north-central Namibia with the Cuvelai floodplain (west), the Kalahari Sandveld

(east) and location of the three study areas (squares). Water channels (iishana) and

temporary ponds are in blue, vegetation and bare soil appear in green and in orange

respectively.

heterogeneity, including vegetation and soils (Figure 1). These villages (Om-

hedi, Ondobe and Ekolola) are on a west-east gradient, representing edaphic

and vegetation differenceswith decreasing influence of the Cuvelai River east-

wards. Omhedi, the westernmost area, is situated in the Cuvelai drainage ba-

sin with active ephemeral water streams (iishana). Ondobe is located between

the drainage basin (mostly inactive iishana) and the Kalahari Sandveld that

lies east of Ondobe. Ekolola is characterized by the Kalahari Sandveld and is

largely covered by deep loose sand deposits, forests and extended temporary

pans (Mendelsohn et al. 2000).

2.1.2. Collecting local soil knowledge

Thedata collection for our study was carried out during various extended field

stays between February 2013 and June 2014. We used semi-structured inter-


views to construct a local soil typology and to understand local farmers’1 soil

quality perception. Most interviews were conducted in the farm homestead,

promoting abstract discussion about soil types and definitions.This approach

was chosen because it helped the researchers to create a local soil typology

that can be extrapolated to a regional scale. However, some interviews were

also conducted during transect walks through the field or in front of soil pits,

both leading to discussions concerning micro-level soil transitions relevant

for management practices, as suggested by Oudwater and Martin (2003).

In total, we conducted 87 interviews on 46 farms, mainly in Ondobe (50

interviews / 21 farms). FromMarch to June 2014, we collected additional inter-

views from Omhedi (19 interviews / 15 farms) and Ekolola (18 interviews / 10

farms). Inmost cases, the head of the household (mostly men above the age of

60) was interviewed, as the family members within the households suggested

this. Mostly, the interview language was Oshikwanyama and translation into

English was provided by a translator from Ongwediva (Oshana region) wit-

hout a background in soil science. This young woman was the translator for

the entire duration of the data collection period. The continuous collaborati-

on enabled the research team to build a common knowledge and language.

The quality of the information collected improved during the period of study,

given that both the researchers’ knowledge concerning local soils and the in-

terpreter’s skills considerably increased (similar observation was done by, for

example, Oudwater and Martin 2003).

All the interviews were audio-recorded and the English oral translation

was transcribed. The most relevant parts of the interviews were transcribed

in Oshikwanyama and translated into English. We used MAXQDA 11 (VERBI

GmbH, 2014) to organize and classify the interviews.

2.1.3. Scientific soil description

We scientifically described 28 soil profiles in cultivated fields in Ondobe (21),

Omhedi (3) and Ekolola (4). These profiles were classified by the farmers as

omutunda (14), ehenge (4), omufitu (4), elondo (3) and ehenene (3). We selected

more omutunda for the analysis given the high agricultural value of this local

soil type and its prevalence in the cultivated area.

1 All informants involved in this study are called farmers, despite the fact that crop cul-

tivation is not necessarily their main economic activity.


We classified the described soils using two scientific soil classifications:

theWorld Reference Base for Soil Resources 2014 (WRB; IUSSWorking Group

WRB 2014) and the Fertility Capability Soil Classification (FCC; Sanchez et

al. 2003). Both require the analysis of various chemical and physical proper-

ties and exclude properties that reflect short-term changes. The WRB aims

at identifying pedological structures and uses properties that are mostly the

outcome of long-term soil evolution (aside from anthropogenic soil modifi-

cations). On the other hand, the FCC aims at highlighting limiting factors for

crop production, specifically for tropical soils, and deals with properties “that

are either dynamic at time scales of years or decades with management, as

well as inherent ones that do not change in less than a century” (Sanchez et

al. 2003: 157).

Both classifications present a hierarchical classification structure. The

WRB’s Reference Soil Groups are “differentiated mainly according to primary

pedogenetic process[es]” (IUSS Working Group WRB 2014: 5) and the FCC’s

substrate reflects the soil type (texture).

2.1.4. The Oshikwanyama soil units

The body of mixed local-technical knowledge summarized in Table 1 is the re-

sult of previous studies (Hillyer et al. 2006, Newsham andThomas 2011, Rigo-

urd and Sappe 1999, Verlinden and Dayot 2005) and the interviews conducted

during the current study. Interviewees described the local soil units mostly

based on soil consistency (hard or soft) and colour shade (dark or light), as

well as the sensitivity to waterlogging conditions.2 These properties are rela-

ted to soil suitability for cultivation - for instance, workability and fertility.

Soil hydrology has a strong influence on agricultural suitability and therefore

on local soil typology and, given the rainfall irregularity, both waterlogging

and soil drought occur frequently during the rainy season. The five soil units

described in Table 1 can be used as cornerstones for soil quality evaluation as

they represent important soil processes and characteristics for crop cultivati-

on (waterlogging risks, texture).

2 Waterlogging conditions indicate soil saturation with water and strongly inhibit roots’

respiration.


Table 1: List of local soil types

Soil type attribute

Water related

characteristics

Consistence Colour shade

Omu-

tunda

Nowaterlogging

High water reten-

tion capacity

Dries out quickly

Hard Dark/black

Omu-

fitu

Nowaterlogging

Low water reten-

tion capacity

Loose Dark or light

Elondo Nowaterlogging Intermediate Intermediate

Ehenge Waterlogging risk

Dries out very

slowly

Loose Light/white

Ehenene Waterlogging risk

Low water reten-

tion capacity

Dries out quickly

Hard Light/white

2.1.5. Local soil types compared to international classifications

According to the WRB, the 28 soil profiles would be classified as arenosols

(17), regosols (10) or calcisols (1) (Figure 2, left). These reference soil groups

are almost exclusively determined by soil texture: sandy and loamy sand soils

are classified as arenosols, while sandy loam and finer soils are regosols. The

fertile soil (omutunda) has a loamy sand or sandy loam texture (<90% sand),

while the other soil types have a sand texture (>90% sand), excluding ehenene.3

This textural difference is significant for productivity and soil management

strategies in north-central Namibia. Both the WRB and FCC classifications

group all sand and loamy sand soil types into a single reference soil group

(arenosols in WRB) or substrate (S in FCC) and describe these classes as ha-

ving low chemical fertility. Farmers in the western Ohangwena region con-

tradict this evaluation and consider loamy sand soils as good soils to grow

pearl millet in north-central Namibia (i.e. omutunda). A better differentiation

3 Productivity in ehenene is limited by poor water infiltration, high pH and sodic conditi-

ons.


of the soils depends on the identification of other characteristics (e.g. base

saturation, colour). Given the gently undulating landscape of the region, the

spatial pattern of the distribution of local soil types is generally related to mi-

cro-topography (elevation differences of a maximum of a few metres), which

results from the variable intensity of influence of the Cuvelai River. In con-

trast, the WRB classification is more driven by macro-topography.The lack of

macro-topography in northern Namibia renders the linkage of local soil ty-

pes’ distribution to landforms (slope, plateau), and therefore to WRB classes,

difficult.

Figure 2 gives an overview of the relation of the local soil typologies to the

two scientific classification systems.This schematic representation highlights

that soils are divided into different classification groups (e.g. distribution of

omutunda symbols between regosols, arenosols and calcisols, or S, SL and L).

It becomes clear that a simple translation of local soil types into WRB or FCC

soil classes is not straightforward.

Figure 2: Schematic representation of the described soil profiles classified in WRB and

FCC classifications


Soil hydrology has a great influence on soil productivity, mostly in relati-

on to rainfall variability. Indeed, both waterlogging and soil drought conditi-

ons, even for short periods of time (a few weeks) during the growing season,

strongly reduce yields. The occurrence of these short events is not taken into

consideration in either the WRB or the FCC.

Based on our findings, we argue that the translation of local soil types into

international classifications is not relevant to evaluate soil quality in north-

central Namibia. Indeed, the two selected international classifications use soil

texture and soil hydraulic conductivity; both treat properties differently than

farmers would, yet these properties are highly relevant in the local context

and strongly influence soil productivity. Despite a seeming misfit, the local

knowledge and the international soil classification complement each other.

However, they are more likely to be of interest to researchers and experts than

to the farmers themselves.

2.1.6. Advantages of combining local and scientific knowledges

Including farmers’ knowledge and trying out a shared research arrangement

helped us to highlight important limiting factors for agricultural production

in the local context (e.g. soil water availability during the early growing sta-

ge) and soil characteristics that are difficult to detect during conventional soil

surveys (waterlogging conditions, micro-scale soil heterogeneity). For these

reasons, we support the use of local assessment as an entry point to under-

stand and assess soil quality at the regional level. We suggest that stepping

back from numerical and quantitative data - without excluding them - can

improve soil fertility assessments on local scales. In comparison with natu-

ral science surveys, local soil knowledge presents many advantages. Firstly, it

assesses quality based on needs; secondly, it requires no laboratory analysis;

thirdly, it includes the most relevant characteristics locally - for example, soil

water characteristics and humidity variability; and fourthly, it helps to reduce

the number of variables that must be assessed for a locally relevant soil qua-

lity evaluation (in our case, for pearl millet cultivation) in a specific climate.

Modern methods can, however, adequately complement the local soil know-

ledge by providing standardization (Niemeijer andMazzucato 2003) and tools

for extra-regional communication.Therefore, the two soil knowledge systems

should be used in a complementary way.


2.2. Issues regarding the participatory approach in naturalsciences

By increasing our understanding of local soil knowledge we faced important

difficulties. We supposed that similar issues came up in other studies that ai-

med to understand local soil knowledge and therefore reflected on our experi-

ences against the literature.We tended to conclude that despite the usefulness

of local soil typology for soil quality assessments, the use of local knowledge

has limitations in the communication, which will be explained below using

direct quotes from our interviews.

2.2.1. Translations of the concept of “soil”

For soil scientists, soils are vertical successions of horizons, which is a re-

stricted concept that is not recognized in many cultures (Barrera-Bassols et

al. 2009). The Oshikwanyama word edu [translation of the word “soil”] inte-

grates broad concepts related to space, from landscape to sand. The range of

meanings of edu led to misunderstandings and confusions about the spatial

scale during many interviews. In particular, omutunda and omufitu were used

to point to general landscapes as well as to specific soil types:

“All over here, people are in omufitu area. The other side of the village is in

omutunda. Mostly you find ehenge in omutunda area (LM, 80, Oipapakane).4

But at omufitu is where you find ehenge (AA, 70, Oipapakane).

All the parcel, like Martha, Kelly, Kalola, here, we are in omutunda area, but

there are different soil types, like small omahenene, or ehenge. But in this omu-

tunda area, you cannot find efululu”5 (LS, 65, Ondobe).

These quotes show that there is a need to contextualize local knowledge and to

acknowledge variation within specific soil types relevant for local users. For

example, large areas like villages are referred to as omutunda (Ondobe villa-

ge) or omufitu (Ekolola village), thereby considering and understanding these

units as landscapes features. Within this context, omufitu was described as an

“area that is not cleared [of trees] even a little” (KS, 65, Ohengobe). However,

shortly after, when the focus shifted to soils, the same informant said: “If I

4 To keep the informants anonymous, we used a code that indicates: 1) a two-letter

name; 2) the farmers’ age; and 3) the study area of the farm.

5 Efululumostly refers to a type of fine loose sand.


cultivate on omufitu, the edu will look red”, clearly referring to a soil. Edu also

refers to soil layers and sand. In the expression, edu li hapu, which literally

means “a lot of sand”, edu takes the meaning of sand.

These examples illustrate the permanent differentiation between scales

during discussions, while the scales of edu are integrated into one another

(e.g. omutunda soil type in an omufitu landscape). Other authors point out

the existence of a similar word, with a large range of meaning, in different

African regions (Birmingham 2003, Lamers and Feil 1995, Niemeijer and

Mazzucato 2003, Osbahr and Allan 2003). “Soil” in English or “terre” in

French are two examples from Europe that also cover very large concepts

related to space. These overlapping definitions increase the risk of confusion

and misunderstandings. However, as used by Hillyer et al. (2006), these

soil/landscape names have the advantage of including uncultivated lands, i.e.

not ploughed.

From our observations, informants talked more about the landscape de-

finition of edu when referring to abstract spatial concepts (e.g. villages) and

focused on agricultural soil when referring to their fields. As an example, CH

(65, Efidi) claimed that all his farmwas in omufitu, but during transect walks it

was possible to find omutunda, ehenene and most of the field was ehenge, while

no omufitu was described.

The potential confusion regarding the concept of soil was mostly resolved

by specifically improving the precision of communication between the trans-

lator and the researcher. Parts of the interviews were transcribed together to

differentiate between these scales.

2.2.2. Intergrades

Local typology is highly adaptive to conditions and adjusts to changes - and

even the interview context - by the extended use of combined soil names (“in-

tergrades”, after Krogh and Paarup-Laursen 1997). The intergrades are good

indicators for land degradation or improvement in relation to, for example,

land management techniques, and are a way to emphasize certain properties

(Birmingham 2003). A soil might, for example, be related to omutunda to em-

phasize its good productivity but omufitu to emphasize its loose consistency

in comparison to other locations.

“This soil is a mixed soil of ehenge and ehenene, it’s like a ehenene-henge (CH,

65, Efidi).


… because all where is omutunda-henene if it rains you can sink … (AA, 75,

Oipapakane).

Close to the fig tree and there, it is ehenge. In between, there is omufitu and

it is omufituhenge” (KF, 65, Etomba).

During the first interviews at each farm, held in the house, these intergrades

appeared only rarely. During transect walks, while trying to understand more

details about local soil types, they appeared more frequently. Following the

insistence of the interviewers to find the “real” omutunda, or the “real” omufitu,

these intergrades appeared in high proportion.

2.2.3. Local experts

It proved to be very difficult to collect information concerning local soil types

in Oshikwanyama from literate or schooled people. English speaking infor-

mants (local elite, ministry officer) explained the soil diversity in terms of

three “soil” types, namely sandy soils, loamy soils and clay soils. We assume

that these informants are aware of the soil diversity and local soil types, but it

seemed clear that they considered the information learned in school as more

valuable or more in line with the expectations of an outsider in comparison

to the local knowledge.

2.2.4. Accuracy of descriptions

The accuracy of soil descriptions collected from the interviews depends on the

local soil unit considered.This is related to the various values given to the soil

for a specific unit. Verlinden andDayot (2005) observed that depending on the

indigenous land units, soil characteristics have various levels of importance.

This explains that soils are more narrowly defined in soil units when used for

cultivation.

2.2.4.1. Omufitu and the importance of soil versus vegetation

information

Omufitu largely refers to areas where bushes are still present, and despite

awareness of the scale issue (soil/landscape) of omufitu, it was difficult to get

clear descriptions for omufitu as a soil type (e.g. soil colour; Table 1), mostly

because soil characteristics are less important than vegetation in defining this

unit.


“Omufitu, they are different. I think that an area is called omufitu if the area

is not cleared from trees” (KS, 60, Ohengobe).

“You can find omufitu that will give you good food […], but some of your

neighbours with omufitumight not get anything from it” (NW, 70, Etomba).

In omufitu, soils did not matter much in a relatively recent past, as they we-

re mostly kept for firewood and grazing. Therefore, soil characteristics are

not important and soils have different qualities. However, omufitu is today in-

creasingly cleared and cultivated, and the number of distinguished omufitu

soil types may therefore grow with the rising cultivation rate (for a similar

example in eastern Burkina Faso, see Niemeijer and Mazzucato 2003).

2.2.4.2. Omutunda and the relativity of soil quality in relation to the

surrounding environment

In contrast to omufitu, soil characteristics are well defined for omutunda in

the literature and during the interviews, because these soils have been largely

turned into fields. This accuracy does not mean that all omutunda are similar,

but they share a set of characteristics. Almost all informants described them

as hard and dark soils.

The quality of a soil in a field is often compared with the other soils in

one’s own fields, however, and soils are defined comparatively, as observed by

Birmingham (2003). Furthermore, it has been observed in various studies that

soil quality ascriptions of local soil typesmay vary depending on various para-

meters such as individual perceptions (Barrera-Bassols et al. 2006), intended

uses (e.g. agricultural versus housing; Gray and Morant 2003, Niemeijer and

Mazzucato 2003) or specific environmental conditions in the surroundings

(Gray and Morant 2003).

Omutundawas defined as the best soil for pearl millet by most informants.

“There are different types of omutunda. At Tate S., omutunda is not good be-

cause there is stone; it will only be good soil when you add cow dung” (LN,

65, Omhedi).

Omutunda is “where you feed” (CK, 65, Ohandiba), and farmers tend to de-

scribe the most productive part of their land as omutunda. The omutunda de-

scribed in or close to the Cuvelai drainage system (Omhedi and Ondobe) is

finer and darker than the omutunda found in the Kalahari woodland biome

(Ekolola). We can show this difference using technical parameters (pH, fine

particles content, colour shade; Figure 3). This result indicates that the pro-


ductivity potential of omutunda is lower in the woodland biome than in the

floodplain environment, which was acknowledged by the farmers themselves:

“The soil [omutunda] … inside the country [floodplain] breastfeeds on iishana

… it is hard not like ours [Ekolola area]” (TN, 70, Ohandiba).

A farmer fromOmhedi (eastern floodplain) used intergrades to illustrate sim-

ilar soil quality difference:

“… that is omufitu-tunda …Yes, because did you say it is at Eengonyo [Ekolola

area]? Omufitu-tunda because that omutunda does not occupy a big area” (IS,

75, Omhedi).

In this example, the region (Eengonyo village) is important information to

claim that the omutunda described is an intergrade between omutunda and

omufitu (omufitu-tunda), because omutunda “does not occupy a big area”. Inde-

ed, Eengonyo (in the Ekolola area) is situated in an area with a lot of deep

sands and forest (omufitu).

2.2.4.3. Management and rainfall as influencing soil quality

Another aspect that needs to be taken into consideration is that actual soil

quality (the yield achieved on a specific soil in a specific year) is strongly in-

fluenced by inputs (e.g. fertilizer, labour, rainfall). Even sandy soils can be

productive if fertilizers (mostly manure) are used appropriately.

“Omutunda and omufitu produce the same, but it strongly depends on ma-

nure availability” (LS, 65, Ondobe).

Consequently, the ongoing decline of livestock density in villages and/or the

use of tractor ploughing is leading to a soil fertility decline in many areas.

Land degradation was indicated by the transformation of omutunda soils

(mostly) into other local soil types, which are, by definition, less fertile.

“Originally our soil was omutunda, but then it became ehenene…” (CP, 40, Oily-

ateko).

Conversely, old homestead or kraal locations turn local soil into omutunda:

“The field was just ehenge, but it has changed and it looks like omutunda,

because when we shift the house or the kraal, or apply manure, it changes

ehenge into something else” (VH, 45, Oilyateko).


Figure 3: Regional variability of omutunda

The central line represents the median value of described omutunda in Ondobe, the sha

ded area represent25 and 75 percentiles. Light grey lines represent the individual profiles

of omu

-

tunda described in Omhedi and dark grey lines represent the individual profiles

of omutunda described in Ekolola. The results indicate that omutunda from Ekolola

has a lower pH, finer particle content (PSD <20), and is lighter (higher colour shade).

“If you go and look at my crops there you will see how the cattle changed the

soil. Now sand soil became omutunda” (MJ, 60, Omhedi).

Therefore, as soil quality can be altered rather fast through the application of

manure or through over-exploitation, correspondingly the soil type can also

change in a relatively short period. This highlights that labelling works with

culturally built landscapes.

“The availability of water in soil is the most limiting factor for agricultural

productivity in north-central Namibia. Each soil type has a different produc-

tivity potential depending on rainfall scenarios (intensity, amount and dis-

tribution). Most obvious examples in north-central Namibia are the produc-

tivity of omutunda and ehenge [Table 1].Omutunda is productivewhen rainfalls

are frequent but has a poor yield if extended dry spells occur. On the other

hand, ehenge is more productive during rainy seasons with below average


rains. During these years, it will not experience waterlogging conditions. [...]

if it rains a lot, omutunda does not grow good millet. If there are short rains,

then we will harvest at ehenge” (JP, 60, Omhedi B).

Consequently, ehenge is mainly cultivated to minimize the risk of crop fail-

ure during years of poor rainfall. In general, farmers will always plant on a

mixture of different soils, not to aim for the best possible yield, but to reduce

risks, as described in other studies (Briggs and Moyo 2012, Gray and Morant

2003, Krogh and Paarup-Laursen 1997, Niemeijer and Mazzucato 2003, Os-

bahr and Allan 2003). This behaviour is described by game theory as a mini-

max strategy (e.g. Lipton 1982).

2.3. Participatory research in natural sciences: reflections andchallenges

2.3.1. Expectations and managing data

During this study, a young natural scientist collected local soil typologies and

compared them to international classifications. Many farmers had some dif-

ficulties valuing their knowledge with regard to the white male scientist’s

knowledge. However, once they understood the goals of the study, they we-

re very keen and proud to share their knowledge. Before starting the data

collection, both interviewers (scientist and translator) had some expectations

regarding the information that would and should be collected. Partly for that

reason, early during the data collection period, we concluded that the main

local soil types (omutunda, omufitu, ehenge and ehenene) can be defined using a

limited amount of information. The information summarised in Table 1 is in

line with the data collected during each interview, with few exceptions.

However, during the 87 interviews, a large quantity of information con-

cerning soils was collected which did not correspond directly with our expec-

tations. Thus, a continuous selection of information was necessary to do the

analysis and to establish Table 1.The information that seemed to the scientist

and the translator to be the most relevant information was selected, tran-

scribed, codified and used for further analysis (comparing scientific and local

soil knowledge, translation and classification).This led to a potentially biased

or incomplete soil typology comparison, as the information which remained

unclear, inconsistent or confusing was dismissed.The dismissed information


might, however, have held important implicit local knowledge. For example,

ehenge and ehenene are two different soil types described by most farmers and

in the literature (Table 1), but two informants suggested that these soils are

the same:

“Ehenge is ehenene. Normally it is called ehenge, but it is ehenene. Ehenge is also

ehenene, or vice-versa” (JD, 55, Omhedi).

Dismissed because it does not correspond to most opinions, this informa-

tion may indicate that these two soils are very closely related to each other

and differentiating them is irrelevant for some informants. This informati-

on highlighted the connection between these soils in relation to waterlogging

probability and the presence of a hardened layer at various depths.

Another piece of evidence dismissed is that omufitu is considered either

good or bad during droughts. Given the high permeability of this soil, we

would favour the information that stipulates that omufitu is bad during

droughts because it does not hold water. This was also the most commonly

found information. However, we should not exclude that some omufitumight

be good (or better) during droughts:

“The entire field is the same soil [omufitu]. It is not suitable formillet ...Omu-

fitu does not lose water moisture underground. So, with omufitu, people will

have at least some millet this year [2013, drought]” (MH, 70, Ondobe).

2.3.2. Dealing with complexity

This information exclusion process was required to communicate and redu-

ce the complexity of local knowledge. The information collected during the

interviews can be divided into two levels of local knowledge: i) the local soil

groups, with clearly defined characteristics; and ii) the information regarding

specific locations, specific terms and incoherence highlighting soil processes.

The information found on the first level can be transferred to and used by

outsiders without many difficulties. It includes the most explicit information

regarding land management (e.g. hardness, waterlogging risks). However, it

should not be forgotten that summaries and externalization give only a glim-

pse into local knowledge and therefore need to be used carefully. The implicit

information found in the second level of knowledge is more difficult to access

and to make explicit to outsiders, as it varies from person to person. The set

of information held in this body of knowledge cannot be codified, classified


or generalized, and therefore needs to be collected directly (personalized) wi-

thout any (or only limited) translation or intermediaries. Understanding all

variations of this knowledge renders it difficult for outsiders to use. Through

externalization to outsiders, a large proportion of this knowledge is lost and

misinterpreted (or over-interpreted). It loses accuracy, but could be used in

combination with other knowledge.

The summary table (Table 1) is the result of parallel processes of collection

and selection performed by the translator and the authors. Identification of

the key properties enabled them to use and communicate a simple soil typolo-

gy that can thereafter be used, for example, in soil quality assessment (Prudat

et al. 2018). This simplification often occurs when scientists categorize and

communicate environmental and soil local knowledge to outsiders (Barrera-

Bassols et al. 2006). However, as discussed above, the soil quality of local soil

types is actually more complex than its presentation to readers.

Oudwater and Martin (2003) emphasize that social scientists do not have

the necessary tools to understand soil typologies. Conversely, collecting far-

mers’ soil knowledge is not as simple as visiting various farms and asking

questions. The understanding of a local soil typology implies that soil scien-

tists experience the local contexts for extended periods, but also to get ac-

quainted with semi-structured interview methods and qualitative data ana-

lysis.

2.4. Conclusion and perspectives

The type of shared research we engaged in was to be open to local labelling

of soils. We realized through this process that soil classes refer not only to

general soil properties, but also to how soils are contextualized regarding the

aim of production and the view on environmental factors, and they are set in

relation to other areas observed in the neighbourhood.

We discussed the benefits and limitations of using the local soil typology

to evaluate soil quality in regions with poorly developed and sandy soils. To

collect farmers’ knowledge about soils and evaluate their perception of soil

quality, soil scientists need to engage with the local community. The explicit

knowledge that can be collected and transferred (externalized) is a generali-

zed and codified knowledge, while many implicit details mentioned by a few

are excluded. The exclusion of a large proportion of the knowledge collected

is criticized, but this process is necessary in order to remain usable to out-


siders. It should be emphasized when externalizing this knowledge, howe-

ver, that it does not represent the opinion of all members of the community

and that the “local” knowledge has been de-localized and large proportions of

implicit knowledge excluded. The possibility of collecting and understanding

such knowledge during rapid appraisal should therefore be looked at critical-

ly, because local knowledge (e.g. of soils), is based on a comparative basis and

changes over time and space.

The high variability and confusing answers collected were frustrating.

However, the value of the knowledge accumulated should not be underesti-

mated.We show with our understanding that the classification of natural ob-

jects (e.g. soils) is the result of a codification process performed by “experts”

(elders, academics), and aims at simplifying the diversity of objects (e.g. omut-

unda defines fertile areas). This classification will vary between experts, and

depends on the context in which the object exists and is used.

In general, the main advantage of using a participatory approach in na-

tural sciences is commonly thought to be the involvement of communities in

the research. We would argue the other way around, and that it works both

ways, in that a participatory approach, by forcing researchers to invest time

in the community, engages the researchers in the social context in which the

soils are used, giving a broader perspective than the soil itself. In this way, re-

searchmoves from participatory (including the community in the research) to

observatory research (including the researcher in the community). Engaging

in local knowledge together with local actors allows us to come to a view on

shared knowledge which cannot be reached by rapid methods, but by partici-

pating and observing. This emic position opens new perspectives for further

researches and further discussions with scientists in various fields of study.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Florence Botin for her proofreading, Claudia Zingerli

and Tobias Haller for their highly valuable comments, Vladimir Wingate, Ro-

mie Nghitevelekwa and Laura Weidmann for their assistance with fieldwork,

Martha Fillemon for her invaluable translations and patience, and Alex Ver-

linden for his academic guidance through indigenous knowledge.The project

was funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation and the German Rese-

arch Foundation.


2.5. References

Agrawal, A. (1995). Dismantling the divide between indigenous and scientific

knowledge. Development and Change, 26(3), 413–439.

Barrera-Bassols, N. and Zinck, J. A. (2003). Ethnopedology: A worldwide view

on the soil knowledge of local people. Geoderma, 111(3), 171–195

Barrera-Bassols, N., Zinck, J. A. and van Ranst, E. (2006). Symbolism, knowl-

edge and management of soil and land resources in indigenous commu-

nities: Ethnopedology at global, regional and local scales. CATENA, 65(2),

118–137.

Barrera-Bassols, N., Zinck, J. A. and van Ranst, E. (2009). Participatory soil

survey: Experience in working with a Mesoamerican indigenous commu-

nity. Soil Use and Management, 25(1), 43–56.

Birmingham, D. M. (2003). Local knowledge of soils: The case of contrast in

Côte d’Ivoire. Geoderma, Ethnopedology, 111(3–4), 481–502.

Briggs, J. (2013). Indigenous knowledge: A false dawn for development theory

and practice? Progress in Development Studies, 13(3), 231–243.

Briggs, J. and Moyo, B. (2012). The resilience of indigenous knowledge in

small-scale African agriculture: Key drivers. Scottish Geographical Jour-

nal, 128(1), 64–80.

Ellen, R. F., Parkes, P. and Bicker, A. (eds.) (2000). Indigenous environmen-

tal knowledge and its transformations: Critical anthropological perspec-

tives. Studies in Environmental Anthropology 5. Amsterdam: Harwood

Academic.

Gray, L. C. andMorant, P. (2003). Reconciling indigenous knowledge with sci-

entific assessment of soil fertility changes in southwestern Burkina Faso.

Geoderma, Ethnopedology, 111(3–4), 425–437.

Hillyer, A. E. M., McDonagh, J. F. and Verlinden, A. (2006). Land-use and

legumes in northern Namibia –The value of a local classification system.

Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment, 117(4), 251–265.

Hobart, M. (2002). An anthropological critique of development: The growth

of ignorance. London: Routledge.

IUSS Working Group WRB. (2014). World reference base for soil resources

2014. International soil classification system for naming soils and creating

legends for soil maps. World Soil Resources Reports. Rome: FAO.

Kreike, E. (2004). Re-creating Eden: Land use, environment, and society in

southern Angola and northern Namibia. Portsmouth: Heinemann.


Krogh, L. and Paarup-Laursen, B. (1997). Indigenous soil knowledge among

the Fulani of northern Burkina Faso: Linking soil science and anthro-

pology in analysis of natural resource management. GeoJournal, 43(2),

189–197.

Lamers, J. P. A. and Feil, P. R. (1995). Farmers’ knowledge and management of

spatial soil and crop growth variability in Niger, West Africa. Netherlands

Journal of Agricultural Science, 43(4), 375–389.

Lipton,M. (1982). Game against nature:Theories of peasant decision-making.

In: Harriss, J. (ed.), Rural development (pp. 258–268). London: Routledge.

Mendelsohn, J. M., El Obeid, S. and Roberts, C. (2000). A profile of north-

central Namibia. Windhoek: Gamsberg Macmillan Publishers.

Newsham, A. J. and Thomas, D. S. G. (2011). Knowing, farming and cli-

mate change adaptation in north-central Namibia. Global Environmental

Change, 21(2), 761–770.

Niemeijer, D. and Mazzucato, V. (2003). Moving beyond indigenous soil tax-

onomies: Local theories of soils for sustainable development. Geoderma,

Ethnopedology, 111(3–4), 403–424.

Osbahr, H. and Allan, C. (2003). Indigenous knowledge of soil fertility

management in southwest Niger. Geoderma, Ethnopedology, 111(3–4),

457–479.

Oudwater, N. and Martin, A. (2003). Methods and issues in exploring local

knowledge of soils. Geoderma, Ethnopedology, 111(3–4), 387–401.

Pottier, J., Sillitoe, P. and Bicker, A. (2003). Negotiating local knowledge: Iden-

tity and power in development. London: Pluto.

Prudat, B., Bloemertz, L. and Kuhn, N. J. (2018). Local soil quality assessment

of north-central Namibia: Integrating farmers’ and technical knowledge.

SOIL 4, 47–62.

Rathwell, K., Armitage, D. and Berkes, F. (2015). Bridging knowledge systems

to enhance governance of environmental commons: A typology of settings.

International Journal of the Commons, 9(2), 851–880.

Rigourd, C. and Sappe, T. (1999). Investigating into soil fertility in the north

central regions. In: Kaumbutho, P. G. and Simalenga, T. E. (eds.) Conser-

vation tillage with animal traction. Harare: ATNESA.

Sanchez, P. A., Palm, C. A. and Buol, S. W. (2003). Fertility capability soil

classification: A tool to help assess soil quality in the tropics. Geoderma,

Ethnopedology, 114(3–4), 157–185.

Sillitoe, P. (1998). Knowing the land: Soil and land resource evaluation and

indigenous knowledge. Soil Use and Management, 14(4), 188–193.


Sillitoe, P. (2010). Trust in development: Some implications of knowing in in-

digenous knowledge. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 16(1),

12–30.

Verlinden, A. and Dayot, B. (2005). A comparison between indigenous en-

vironmental knowledge and a conventional vegetation analysis in north

central Namibia. Journal of Arid Environments, 62(1), 143–175.

Winklerprins, A. M. G. A. (1999). Insights and applications local soil knowl-

edge: A tool for sustainable land management. Society and Natural Re-

sources, 12(2), 151–61.

3. Action research and reverse thinking for anti-

desertification methods

Applying local revegetation techniques based on

the ecological knowledge of local farmers in the

Sahel of West Africa

Shuichi Oyama

3.1. Introduction

“In November 2001, I observed the men of a Hausa village in Niger spending

the afternoon listening to the radio and playing cards for money. When the

sun set in the west, they would stop playing cards and return to their homes.

They cleaned their livestock yards using rakes and collected the waste. The

waste was then carried to their own farmland. The annual millet and cowpea

crops had already been harvested and cows, goats, and sheep were left to

graze the harvested fields, where they would eat the stems and leaves of the

crops. One man put the waste onto an ox cart his 12-year-old boy was driving.

Another man placed the waste into an 80 cm diameter iron pan and carried

it on his head. The waste included compostable organic matter as well as not

compostable plastic and metals. The heat of the sun was still strong in the

evening and they were dripping with sweat. Women were also involved in

carrying waste from the homesteads to the fields. They wrapped the waste in

cloth and carried it on their heads.”

This diary entry in the fieldnote-like description of a common scene in

a small village in southern Niger stands at the beginning of a puzzle with

which this paper deals. At first, I watched such situations without understan-

ding that the waste, and non-compostable waste, was used by local people to

fertilize and enrich their soils. This fact I came to understand only when I

did participatory observation combined with experiments and helped them

48 Shuichi Oyama

to carry the waste to the farmland,where it was placed on the ground.This ex-

perience in a Hausa village inspiredmy research activities and led tomy quest

for a better understanding of environmental restoration based on the ecologi-

cal knowledge of Hausa farmers, who use non-organic waste to fertilize their

land. How is this possible? How did it impact my collaborative research? And

how does it challenge natural science discourse on land restoration in the Sa-

hel by focusing on local ecological knowledge? These are questions explored

in this article.

3.2. Desertification in the Sahel region

In the Sahel region, on the southern edge of the Sahara Desert, desertificati-

on is a serious problem. It occurs through a combination of natural (irregu-

lar rainfall, drought and poor soil fertility) and anthropogenic factors (over-

cultivation, over-grazing and firewood collection). The rapid increase in the

human population of the Sahel is also considered to be a fundamental high-

pressure driving force for land and desertification. According to the United

Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) in 1994, the definiti-

on of desertification is land degradation.Many researchers have reported that

unsustainable cultivation, over-grazing, firewood collection and urbanizati-

on are the major causes of desertification (e.g. Ayantunde et al. 2000, Dregne

1986, Gonzalez 2001, Mortimore and Turner 2005, Tschakert 2007). In recent

years, both farmers and herders have experienced hunger and poverty caused

by desertification in the Sahel region. This has fuelled armed conflicts. There

is a downward spiral of desertification, hunger and poverty, armed conflict

and terrorism occurring throughout the region.

In the Republic of Niger, PresidentMamadou Tandjamade a commitment

in the beginning of the century to tackle desertification. Government policy

has promoted afforestation, water basin management and erosion preventi-

on. According to government reports, during the three years from 2000 to

2002, an area of 381 km2was afforested, sand dune fixation has occurred over

40 km2, and erosion prevention measures have been extended over 384 km2.

The Great Green Wall for the Sahara and the Sahel Initiative is now being

implemented across the Sahel region, with more than eight billion dollars

promised in support from the European Union, World Bank, Food and Agri-

culture Organization (FAO), UNCCD,Global Environmental Facility and other

organizations. There are some 20 countries involved in the initiative, inclu-

Action research and reverse thinking for anti-desertification methods 49

ding Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Mali,

Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Somalia, Sudan and Gambia. The sca-

le of the project is enormous, with the aim of creating a 15 km wide green belt

extending 8,000 km across the continent. In Senegal, 11.4 million trees have

already been planted on 25,000 hectares of land as part of the initiative.

There is a need to evaluate the effectiveness of this enormous project in

providing funds to the Sahel countries through international development

organizations. The aim of the initiative is to strengthen the coping abilities

of the government and individuals, but there have been difficulties in imple-

menting the initiative. In the Sahel, the population density on arable land is

high, with little space available for afforestation and re-greening. Trees can

be grown on land that is suitable for agriculture, but it is extremely difficult to

plant trees on degraded land without soil improvement efforts. Often forests

in the Sahel zone are not natural but are planted or fostered by people for

centuries, often in the context of high population densities and specific pro-

perty institutions, rules and regulations regarding ownership, maintenance

and use (see Fairhead and Leach 1995, Haller 2003). However, this requires

hard work and large inputs based on many gains (shelter, food, timber and

non-timber products, ritual sites, etc.). This shows there has been a willing-

ness to create forests, but it is unclear if under the new conditions and under

changed property rights over land on fertile ground people are still willing

and able to repeat those efforts.

Leisinger et al. (1995) emphasize the importance of communication bet-

ween local residents and scientists to provide food security and promote rural

development in the Sahel. However, the one-sided transfer of knowledge and

skills from scientists to local residents is often not desirable and not adequate,

as scientists frequently overlook local knowledge and capabilities in contem-

porary livelihoods and agricultural practices in rural villages. The local peop-

le, especially herders, are framed by the large-scale afforestation project as

“troublemakers”, and pastoral commons are alienated in the form of large-

scale land acquisition or land grabbing, including water grabbing and pastu-

re grabbing (Haller et al. 2016). In rural communities of southern Niger, land

shortages have made it difficult for farmers to maintain fallow land. Live-

stock dung is an important resource to improve soil fertility, but farmers can

rarely get enough access to the resource. It is imperative before making ex-

pensive agricultural interventions that the concerns of local residents about

trying to tackle desertification and overcome hunger and poverty are taken

into account.

50 Shuichi Oyama

3.3. Approach and research area

My main exploratory research methodology was participatory observation,

which is a widely used anthropological research method (see Crang and Cook

2007), combined with field trials. I started my research in Niger in 2000; it

continues today.

When I visited Niger for the first time in 2000, I was surprised by the

heat and felt it would be difficult to conduct long-term fieldwork. For me, it

was impossible to start research in this arid region without drinking large

amounts of water. In the surroundings of the Sahara Desert, we also faced

security risks related to Tuareg movements. I intended to conduct fieldwork

among the Hausa, the largest ethnic group in West Africa, and decided to

establish my research area in Dogondoutchi, 270 km east of the capital city,

Niamey (Figure 1). I engaged in agriculture with Hausa farmers and grazed

livestock with Fulbe herders.

Figure 1: Research area: D village

In 2001, the population in Dogondoutchi Town was 29,200. It takes a full

day to travel from Niamey to Dogondoutchi by taxi brousse. My research site


was a nearby village, which I call D village. In 2000, there were 280 residents

among 41 households in this village, which increased to 65 households with

504 residents over the following ten years. During this period, the annual

rate of population increase was extremely high at 6.0 per cent. This rate of

increase would lead to the population doubling every 12 years. In 2010, 62

of the households were Hausa farmers, two were Fulbe and one was Tuareg.

Both the Fulbe and Tuareg are herders of grazing livestock.

TheHausa are the largest ethnic group inWest Africa. Hausa people dwell

in an area extending from Filingue, Tahoua and Zinder in central-north Niger

to as far south as Kano and Zaria in northern Nigeria.1 They refer to themsel-

ves as Bahaushe (singular) orHausawa (plural).Major Hausa communities have

formed in northern Ghana and northern Cameroon, and Hausa storeowners

and artisans can be found in most of the cities of the Sahel. Most Hausa are

Muslims, and it is possible to trace the history of this religion in Hausaland

back to the fourteenth century. Islam spread as the Hausa migrated from one

part of West Africa to another. In West Africa, Islam is now sometimes consi-

dered synonymous with the Hausa people (Adamu 1978). The Hausa kingdom

flourished as a centre for intermediary trade in produce from the coastal regi-

ons to its south, and for rock salt from the Sahara Desert and goods imported

from the Mediterranean (Baier 1980).The Hausa actively pursue commerce in

urban areas of West Africa.

D village is one of the nine oldest villages in the Department of Dogon-

doutchi. Elderly villagers recall that, 60 to 70 years ago, spare land for culti-

vation remained in the plain land around the village, much of it untouched.

Aerial photographs taken by the French colonial government in 1950 confirm

this, showing the village surrounded by uncultivated and fallow land (Oya-

ma 2017). Fulbe and Tuareg herders grazed their livestock in the grassland of

these lands. As the population grew, however, increasing areas of land we-

re cultivated, and by 2006, all arable land had been cleared for farming and

the ownership of each plot in the plain had been established. Communal gra-

zing areas have been limited to the iron-crusted inselbergs and their barren

surroundings. The paths to the water pond were secured by the government,

but the expanding farmlands made it difficult for herders to connect with the

water.

1 Heiss (2015) provides an excellent ethnographyon the everyday life in ruralHausa com-

munity.

52 Shuichi Oyama

In recent years, land suitable for cultivation has been in short supply, and

it has been difficult for villagers to find newly cleared land. Village women

have even attempted to cultivate groundnuts and Bambara nuts in the small

sand dunes they have found on the inselbergs. Allowing the land to lie fallow

is no longer an option, and pearl millet and cowpeas are grown in succession

each year. Much of the arable land is already cultivated and land shortages

are serious.

Desertification, food shortage, famine and armed conflicts among far-

mers and herders are problems that the villagers face in their everyday lives.

This article details the environmental conditions in the research area and il-

lustrates the local recognition and management of desertification from the

viewpoint of the inner community of the village. At the same time, the pa-

per discusses the methods used for land restoration, improvement of food

production, and conflict prevention based on local ecological knowledge and

institutional arrangements.The article reveals that counter-intuitive explora-

tions and reverse thinking can provide room formanoeuvre in highly complex

situations, but the dilemmas of trade-offs between conflict prevention, food

production and environmental degradation remain.

3.4. Agriculture in long-term dry season and short rainy season

3.4.1. Temperature, rainfall and wind

The rainy season in D village is from early June to early October, and is called

damana in Hausa.The temperature and rainfall in 2010 are shown in Figure 2.

The total precipitation in that year was 524.5 mm.The national meteorological

station in Dogondoutchi started taking measurements in 1923, and reported

an average annual precipitation of 465 mm during the 30 years from 1981 to

2010 from the records of Météorologie Nationale du Niger. The precipitation

in 2010 was therefore above the average.

The dry season spans eight months, from October to May. The monthly

average maximum temperature usually exceeds 30°C all year round. In 2010,

there were 352 days exceeding 30°C out of which 241 days exceeding 35°C.

FromMarch to June, the minimum temperature was higher than 25°C during

the hot dry season called rani. The humid season between May and mid-June

is called bazara. In the rani season, the maximum temperature exceeded 40°C

and the minimum temperature around sunrise was still higher than 30°C. For


Figure 2: Temperature and rainfall in D village in 2010 with the seasonal taxonomy

according to the Hausa people

local people, too, these temperatures are difficult and they report that they do

not sleep well at this time.

Immediately before it rains, a wind stronger than 10 m/s blows and crea-

tes windblown sandstorms. In 2011, there were 95 days where wind blasts of

stronger than 10m/s were recorded.This consisted of 35 days during the rainy

season from June to September and 60 days during the dry season.The strong

winds usually stop after 10 to 30 minutes. In the rainy season, it sometimes

starts raining after the strong wind blows, but this does not always happen.

The rain clouds and sandstorms originate from the east and south-east. A hot

and dry wind called the Harmattan also blows from the east during the dry

season. This wind simultaneously induces soil erosion for land degradation

and soil accumulation for land restoration in the Sahel.

54 Shuichi Oyama

3.4.2. Agriculture

There are three staple food crops cultivated in D village: millet, sorghum, and

maize. Intercropping fields of millet (Pennisetum glaucum) and cowpea (Vigna

unguiculata) are spread around the village.Themillet plant stands straight and

the cowpea crawls along the ground. Intercropping of the staple food crop and

local legume is almost universal throughout tropical Africa and brings bene-

fits to crop production and soil fertility (Richards 1985). The distance between

millet plants is 1.2-1.5 m, with cowpea planted in between the millet plants

(Figure 3). The villagers also utilize cowpea in cooking their staple food (tuwo

inHausa). Because of the shortage of rainfall, they cultivatemainlymillet, and

only rarely sorghum and maize. Gourd (Cucumis melo), watermelon (Citrullus

lanatus) and okra (Abelmoschus esculentus) are also planted on the farmland.

Figure 3: A millet field in southern Niger

The growing period for millet is three to five months. The exact period

is dependent on the rainfall conditions and millet variety. There are four va-

rieties of millet: zongokolo, dogohatsi, bazaumi and maiwa, whose yield from


highest to lowest follows that order. According to the villagers, zongokolo re-

quires the highest soil fertility. Drought tolerance from strongest to weakest

follows the order of maiwa, dogohatsi, zongokolo and bazaumi. The variety with

the strongest drought tolerance, maiwa, is a late maturing variety and has

not formed a panicle by the middle of September when the villagers begin to

harvest the other varieties. They start harvesting maiwa at the beginning of

November. The grain of maiwa is toxic and the poison has to be removed by

soaking the seeds in water. After soaking in water, the grain tastes the same as

the other varieties.The use of four varieties creates crop diversity and has en-

abled the villagers to respond to climate change, but the recent introduction

of improved new varieties and chemical fertilizer has led to the extinction of

local varieties. This will make local farmers more vulnerable and less resilient

to climate changes and drought.

Millet is usually harvested from the middle of September to the end of

November.The panicle is cut using a knife.The villagers bundle the harvested

panicles together with ropes and store them in a granary or in clay-made

storage vessels. Cowpea pods are harvested by all family members, including

women and children. Cowpea leaves are collected for use as livestock fodder

and stored on the roofs of the houses. Recently a shortage of livestock fodder

became a serious problem, and millet stems and leaves have therefore been

collected for livestock fodder since 2010.

Men cultivate millet and cowpea in the fields and women plant ground-

nuts (Arachis hypogaea) and Bambara nuts (Vigna subterranea) in sand dunes

on the inselberg. Women care for small patches of their crops every day du-

ring the rainy season. These nuts are important as a household food and also

provide cash income for the women. The women also cut trees and collect

firewood from the inselberg. The sand dunes are covered with grass, which

provides important fodder for the herders’ livestock, with most sand dunes

cultivated by Hausa women. Deforestation is rapid on the inselberg, and the

scattered small patches of nut fields have led to livestock-induced crop dama-

ge, resulting in conflicts over land between farmers and herders.

3.4.3. Soil properties and land degradation

The Hausa farmers recognize changes in the soil conditions resulting from

continuousmillet cultivation (Oyama 2009). For the same general area of land,

Figure 4 shows that differences in soil condition and crop production depend

on specific locations.The farmers classify the soil conditions into one of three

56 Shuichi Oyama

categories: kasa, leso and foko. The Hausa word kasa has various meanings,

including land in general, country, Hausa land, ground and soil, but here I

use its limited meaning of fertile soil. In local conversations, people usually

use the phrase kasa taki (soil of manure) to refer to fertile soil.

Figure 4: Millet field and stages of degraded soils

There are differences in the soil condition and crop production that depend on spe-

cific locations. Left: After a few years of continuous millet cultivation, the fertile soil of

kasa becomes degraded to leso, which appears as white sand in the early stages of land

degradation. Right: The solid sedimentary layer, foko, is exposed when surface soil is

blown away by wind and eroded by rainwater. Foko has extremely low plant productiv-

ity.

Soil with high organic matter results in high crop productivity.The Hausa

call this soil type kasa. Compared to the leso and foko soil types, the kasa layer

(brownish grey on the Standard Soil Colour Chart), which is 0-3cm and 3-12

cm deep, is weakly acidic and has an abundance of soil nutrients with a rich

aggregate structure (see Table 1, Oyama 2012).

This aggregated soil structure is created by termites. Termites use organic

matter such as tree branches and leaves as shelter. Their shelters are made of

sand held together with saliva and excrement (Lee and Wood 1971). Termites

bond the sand grains together with their saliva. Soil aggregates containing air

and water promote plant growth. A solid sedimentary clay layer (dull orange),

identified as foko, accumulates under the kasa taki layer. This kasa soil type

provides favourable growth conditions for millet, with an average stem height

of 156 cm recorded on 20 August 2003. The millet crop yielded 1.1 tons/ha in

the middle of October 2003.

58 Shuichi Oyama

The kasa soil type changes into leso after a few years of continuous millet

cultivation without a manure input. This leso soil type shows an early, degra-

ded soil condition that produces low millet yield. The leso soil type has a poor

aggregate structure and is a pale orange sandy soil that contains little silt and

clay. Under the leso topsoil, a sedimentary layer of foko forms, which appears

as dull orange sandy soil. This sandy leso soil has high soil porosity and does

not disturb the root growth of the crop, but nutrient availability is poor. The

average stem height of millet in the fields with leso soil was 36 cm on 20 Au-

gust 2003. The plants failed to form panicles, and the grain yield was only 0.1

tons/ha.

A few years of continuous cultivation without land management leads to

wind andwater erosion of the topsoil and exposes the solid sedimentary layer.

This sedimentary foko layer has extremely low plant productivity.Hill (1972) de-

scribes this hard and barren ground in his excellent ethnography of the Hausa

people in northern Nigeria. The foko layer is mainly a quartz sand containing

acidic sulphate. The foko soil has strong acidity and poor soil nutrition. The

clay layer is runny when wet, but hardens after it dries. When the foko layer is

exposed at the surface, crop growth at the root is significantly hampered due

to the soil’s single-grain structure and poor chemical constitution. The solid

foko layer greatly impedes water penetration into the ground. The millet ger-

mination rate in this soil is low, and most plants eventually die. All the millet

had withered by 20 August 2003, with an average stem height of only 7 cm.

The millet grain yield was zero (Oyama 2009).

As Graef and Haigis (2001) note, the soil fertility of farmland is decreasing

and further technologies need to be integrated into farming systems to make

them sustainable in the Sahel. From the viewpoint of Hausa farmers, land de-

gradation means a transformation of the ground surface from kasa to leso and

then from leso to foko. According to their explanation of the land degradation

process, kasa will change to leso and then foko without land management. In

the first step, soil fertility is lost with the change to leso. Then the white sand

of leso is blown away and eroded by rainwater until a solid sedimentary layer

of foko is finally exposed at the surface.

This land degradation process is caused by water and wind erosion. Sur-

face soil is eroded away and a solid sedimentary layer is exposed to the sur-

face. This process is triggered by anthropogenic factors such as continuous

farming, grazing and tree-cutting. Loss of the surface soil creates a barren

land surface of sedimentary rocks, which are called foko by Hausa farmers.

This barren land is the final stage of the land degradation process. The villa-


gers cannot producemillet and cowpea on this land, and natural plants cannot

become established.

Initiatives like the Great GreenWall for the Sahara and the Sahel Initiative

emerge from such environmental analyses to counteract desertification and

to restore land for agricultural production and to sustain livelihoods.

3.5. Local countermeasures against land degradation

The Hausa farmers do not simply accept land degradation. In Hausa socie-

ty, the importance of harkuki (movement) is culturally emphasized. Farmers

respond rapidly to the degradation of their farmland. They proudly told me:

“We can improve the soil condition of leso and foko and convert it back to ka-

sa.” To recover the crop yield, they have adopted the two countermeasures: (1)

providing livestock dung to farmland based on an encampment contract with

herders in areas of leso soil, and (2) providing waste inputs to the degraded

leso and foko soils.

The encampment contract in the Sahel region allows maintenance and

improvement of the productivity of millet plots. These institutional arrange-

ments between farmers and livestock herders, called hulda damakyaya in Hau-

sa, have been widely practised for generations across semi-arid West Africa

(e.g. Baier 1980, Schlecht and Buerkert 2004).

With the arrival of the rainy season, the nomadic Fulbe and Tuareg people

move north, crossing the marginal limit of the cultivation zone and grazing

their livestock around the edges of the Sahara Desert.The Fulbe people main-

ly raise cattle, together with goats and sheep, while the Tuareg herders may

have camels as well as goats and sheep. Women and children move from one

camp to another on donkeys, which are also used to transport household pos-

sessions.

In November and December, as the rainy season comes to an end, the

herders begin to move their livestock south, passing though farming villages.

By this time, the villagers have finished harvesting their millet and cowpea,

and the land surrounding the village is covered in post-harvest stubble. The

herders try to select a route that will take them through the most produc-

tive farmland, and approach villagers - particularly wealthy ones - to discuss

encampment contracts.

Once the parties have reached an agreement on terms such as the camp

duration and fees, the herder sets up his camp on the contracted land. During

60 Shuichi Oyama

the daytime, he lets his animals feed on the post-harvest stubble, leaving them

free also to graze on plots other than the one subject to the contract. In the

evening, he brings them back to the campsite,where they spend the night.The

livestock are not corralled, but the herder keeps livestock on the contracted

land.The animals nourish the soil in the vicinity of the camp with significant

quantities of manure (Figure 5). The addition of these nutrients is crucial to

the outcome of the following season’smillet crop (Schlecht and Buerkert 2004,

Shinjo et al. 2008, Suzuki et al. 2014). At the end of the contract period, the

herder receives payment from the farmer in cash and millet, and leaves the

village.

Figure 5: Encampment contracts between farmers and herders

Farmers make encampment contracts with the Fulbe and Tuareg herders. During the

night, the herders stay with their livestock on the farmer’s farmland. The farmer exclu-

sively receives soil nutrients on the private farmland from the livestock dung. Farmers

usually request that herders camp on the sandy leso soil, which is nutrient deficient.

The fertilizing effect of the manure from these encampments is encap-

sulated in the Hausa saying: “Camel five years, goat and sheep three years,

cow one year”. Cow manure decomposes rapidly, providing nutrients for one

year only; goat and sheep manure can last for three years, while camel manu-

re provides five years of fertilization. The Hausa farmers’ understanding of

the properties of livestock manure is consistent with the scientific findings of

Brouwer and Powell (1998). Villagers wishing to enter into contracts with the

Tuareg, whose herds include many camels and therefore have the potential to

provide highly effective fertilization, are required to pay a high price in cash

andmillet. Soil nutrients can be added to the degraded farmland through this

encampment contract.


3.5.1. “Waste is manure for our farmland”

Hausa farmers have another countermeasure to restore the degraded farm-

land. As part of their everyday life, villagers collect waste to fertilize their

own farmland (Oyama 2012, Oyama and Mammane 2010). Waste is regarded

as manure, called taki in Hausa. The famers monitor the soil conditions on

their farmland and apply the waste to areas of degraded land (i.e. leso and fo-

ko) as a land management activity (Figure 6). They emphasize the importance

of waste inputs and the biological activities of termites for recovering crop

productivity. I have conveniently translated the Hausa word taki into manu-

re in English, but taki means not only organic waste (e.g. the inedible parts

of crops, such as plant residues from food processing, and livestock fodder

and dung) but also inorganic waste (e.g. worn out clothes, shoes, vinyl san-

dals, plastic bags, cartons, straw baskets and mats, iron pots and dishes, and

used batteries). The villagers claim that non-compostable waste is important

for fertilizing the farmland.The farmers transport domestic waste from their

homes to their farmland throughout the year. The amount of waste produced

varies according to the number of household members and livestock, and the

animal species, but the average amount is 10 to 40 kg per day. From a house-

hold owning an ox cart, 200 to 400 kg waste is transported to farmland every

seven to ten days. Men and women wrap 10 to 15 kg of waste in cloths and

carry it to the farmland on their heads every day.

Some farmers living near the town collect urban waste for application to

their farmland, with the aim of improving the soil condition. They transport

urban waste to the degraded foko land by ox cart, tractor or dumping vehicle.

Urban waste contains large amounts of soil nutrients such as nitrogen, pot-

assium, phosphate, calcium and magnesium. Sand accounts for at least three

quarters of the mass of urban waste and is important for land restoration.2

This sand is carried by storms immediately before the rainfall and Harmattan

during the dry season.

2 According tomyweightmeasurement in February 2018, the urbanwaste of one tractor

was 2826 kg in total. The composition was 2609 kg (92.3%) sand, 189 kg (6.7%) plastic

and vinyl bags, 17.4 kg (0.6%) stone, 4.96 kg (0.2%) plastic, 2.48 kg (0.09%)metal, 2.26

kg (0.08%) cloth, 0.68 kg (0.02%) glass fragments and 0.11 kg (0.004%) paper. Even

in the urban area, a huge amount of sand is provided by strong wind and sandstorms.

The urban dwellers collect the sand and carry it to the dumping site. This sand disturbs

the incineration treatment of urban waste in the Sahel.

62 Shuichi Oyama

Figure 6: Waste for fertilizing the farmland

Farmers monitor the soil conditions and apply urban waste as manure to fertilize

the degraded farmland. (A) Farmers put millet stems and plant residues onto the de-

graded land. (B) Sand accumulates around the livestock dung, plant residue and pruned

branches. (C) In 2010, farmers started using the urban waste to catch the blown sand.

(D) Farmers scattered the waste by fork and promoted termite activities and organic

decomposition. The urban waste includes plastic bags, worn out clothes, sandals, bas-

kets, and metal dishes and pots. Farmers claimed that all the materials have functions

and good effects for soil improvement and land rehabilitation.

The organic matter provides nutrition for crops and food for termites, so

improving the physical condition of the soil. The inorganic matter in worn

out clothes, sandals, mats and pots is mixed in with the blown sand in the

urban waste and accumulates in the sedimentary layer.The urban waste could

be considered a soil dressing applied to the degraded land. Applying urban

waste can help to recover the plant productivity of degraded land (Oyama

2012, 2015a, Oyama and Mammane, 2010).


3.5.2. First trial of urban waste-induced land restoration

In a meeting in June 2005, I consulted with the village headman and influ-

ential seniors about my plan for a land restoration experiment using urban

waste and requested permission to use the degraded land to the east of D vil-

lage, surrounding an inselberg. All of them approvedmy request willingly and

promptly. At that time, an aged man talked about past activity in this area.

He said:

“The degraded land you want to use was pasture land more than 60 years

ago. The ground was covered with grass and a Fulbe herder named Boi lived

with his livestock on the grassland. After the trees were cut down for fire-

wood and Boi grazed livestock continuously for many years, the wind blew

away the sand and the soil was eroded by rainwater. The erosion exposed

the barren rock and plants could no longer grow, leading to the current sit-

uation. The ground became unsuitable for grazing livestock and Boi left the

village with his son, Madaure.”

The ground was “no man’s land”, with free access to the public. The herders

could use the grassland freely and induced the land degradation.

The headman and influential seniors gave me permission to use an area of

2.7 ha. The land was positioned on a gentle slope, and included the pediment

around the inselberg. Rainwater flow had washed away the surface soil and

the pediment was vulnerable to further water erosion. The sedimentary layer

was exposed on the surface and no plants were growing on the barren land.

In 2007, it was estimated that between 80 cm and 1 m of soil erosion had

occurred by measuring the length of exposed tree roots (Figure 7). The solid,

barren ground was classified as degraded land, foko, by the farmers. There

was no grass and a limited number of trees in the area.We could not find any

active termite mounds. Only one old mound was observed in the area; it had

been weathered by wind and rainfall (Figure 8).

I rented two bulls and ox carts to carry urban waste fromDogondoutchi to

the degraded land.The rental fee was 1,500 CFA francs (3 USD) per journey. It

took one and a half hours each way.Whenwe arrived at the town,we collected

the waste from a residential area using rakes and loaded the carts with waste

using shovels. Under the strong sunshine, I developed blisters on my right

hand due to the unfamiliar and strenuous work. At the beginning of June,

in the early rainy season, the urban waste was moist and had an unpleasant

odour.

64 Shuichi Oyama

Figure 7: Tree roots exposed by wind and water erosion, indicating soil erosion to a

depth of at least 80 cm

At first, the residents were perplexed to see us working in the town and

transporting waste to the village. I explained the purpose of the experiment

to the urban residents and they immediately understood and thanked us for

cleaning the residential area and surrounding streets. After loading each ox

cart with waste, the carts became heavy and it took more than two hours to

reach the site. The two bulls were salivating and struggled to pull the carts.

When we arrived at the experimental site, we dropped the waste from the

ox carts and levelled the waste into a round shape.The mass of waste was 400

kg per ox cart. The bull owner complained about the low price for the rental

fee and demanded an increase from me. I agreed to increase the fee to 2,500

CFA francs per journey. July is considered the hungry season, when people

suffer food shortages. It was also a hungry season for the livestock: we could

see the bulls’ ribs, and they did not have enough power to pull the ox carts

when they were fully loaded with waste. Although I increased the rental price


Figure 8: Weathered termite mound

In this arid land, the most common organisms in the underground environment are

termites, but many termite mounds have been abandoned and have subsequently be-

come weathered because the termites cannot get access to wooden material as food

following desertification.

to 2,500 CFA francs, we had to reduce the number of journeys made by the

bulls to 12.

Some villagers asked to borrowmoney to purchase household food at that

time, but I refused to lend money to avoid later money troubles. I could not

reject their requests without being impolite and so, instead, I requested they

bring domestic waste to the site for which I paid them a fee. I was able to

collect waste 12 times by ox cart, ten times on the back of a donkey, and once

carried on a man’s head. A total of 5,200 kg of waste was applied to eight

locations on the degraded land (Figure 9).

66 Shuichi Oyama

Figure 9: Land restoration experiment using urban waste

3.5.3. Emerging pastureland

I visited the research site in August 2008, which was in the rainy season, two

years after we carried the urban waste to the degraded land. I observed a

green carpet that had arisen from the urban waste. The green colour was in

stark contrast to the surrounding degraded land, which had a uniform brown

colour. The son of the village headman was experienced at identifying plant

species and counted 75 species at the site (Figure 10). According to my Hausa

informants, plastic bags, sandals and metal pots were able to catch the wind-

blown sand and so prevented soil erosion. My Fulbe informant explained that

most of these plants growing on the urban waste had high levels of nutrition

and were favoured fodder for livestock. We collectively believed that urban

waste could be used to restore the degraded land. My informants said: “Both

urban and domestic waste can be used to create pastureland.” Interestingly,

the emerging pasture was immediately used by more people in the village.


Figure 10: Grassland created from urban waste

I encountered a Tuareg girl in the pastureland created from the urban

waste. She grazed ten goats and one sheep for her parents. I knew her parents

and they all lived in D village. The time of this encounter was 1:30 pm and the

site was in full sun. Despite the heat, she continued to chase and graze the

livestock on the pastureland. The girl said to me:

“If I return home now, there is nobody at home. My mother and father are

working on the farmland. I feel good grazing livestock here. When I graze

them from the early morning, we can get milk from the sheep and goats

in the evening and the milk nourishes us. But Hausa farmers will scold me

terribly if I enter their farmland. I am happy to graze here, away from the

farmland.”

After my conversation with her, I was able to understand more clearly the

severe situation faced by Fulbe and Tuareg herders. They needed to secure

pastureland to graze their livestock freely without intervention from the far-

mers (Figure 11). However, free access to pastureland promoted further land

68 Shuichi Oyama

degradation. Although I had made a huge effort to transport the urban waste

and restore the land, the livestock grazed the pastureland freely and removed

the soil nutrients. A few years later, the desertification process would start

again, with conversion back to the degraded land referred to as foko.

Figure 11: A 12-year-old Tuareg girl grazing goats and sheep on the grassland created

from urban waste

3.6. Eight effects of urban waste use for land restoration

It became clear that land restoration from degraded land to pastureland was

possible technically.However, I could neither understand the process andme-

chanism of land restoration nor the necessary amount of waste for land res-

toration. In November 2008, I consulted the headman and influential seniors

again about the possibility of building a large-scale experimental plot. Then

I started another trial, as I wanted to assess the effects of using urban waste

for land restoration.


With the cooperation of the villagers, we transported urban waste from

a residential area of Dogondoutchi for use in a greening experiment on the

sedimentary layer.We enclosed the land with fences for 50 m in the east-west

direction and 45 m in the north-south direction (Figure 12). The experimental

site was located on the pediment, with a gentle slope, and was highly vul-

nerable to soil erosion.There was no plant growth around the plot and we did

not observe any active termite mounds nearby.This area of pediment was the

location that the seniors had informed me earlier was degraded pastureland.

The termite mounds had been diminished by rain and wind, and tree roots

were exposed to a depth of 30 to 70 cm.

In this 50 × 45 m plot, I made five sub-plots (plots 1 to 5) that extended

4 m in the north-south direction and 30 m in the east-west direction. At 20

m from the east end of the plots, I set two time-domain reflectometry (TDR)

sensors for soil moisture at depths of 5 and 20 cm in each plot. These ten

sensors measured soil moisture every hour and the data were recorded by

a data logger. The temperature, wind direction and speed, and rainfall were

also measured and recorded every hour. A technician from the Météorologie

Nationale du Niger generously supported my work.

We hired an open Toyota Hilux to carry urban waste from Dogondoutchi

town. We measured the weight of the urban waste using a scale (LDS-30H,

Shimadzu, Tokyo, Japan; minimum scaling unit was 0.01 kg). Plot 1 was a

control and did not contain any urban waste. We placed 5 kg/m2 (total 600

kg) of urban waste in plot 2; 10 kg/m2 (1,200 kg) in plot 3; 20 kg/m2 (2,400

kg) in plot 4; and 45 kg/m2 (5,400 kg) in plot 5. We placed waste into a flat

iron pan and measured the amounts with the help of 15 villagers. One villager

levelled the waste on the ground with worn out sandals and said to me, “This

trial is very good, and many plants will grow from the urban waste. I will buy

this land for sowing millet.” He said this to me repeatedly.

The in-situ experiment revealed that urban waste inputs to degraded land

improve plant growth through a combination of the eight factors described

below (Figure 13). The arenosol soil type3 is prone to damage from water and

3 The arenosol soil type - one of the typical poor soils in Africa - is also found in Nami-

bia. According to Prudat et al. (2018), local farmers recognize this soil type as Omufitu

and its suitability for pearl millet is poor. Prudat et al.’s paper integrated the farmers’

assessment and technical knowledge in order to develop the practical soil quality as-

sessment.

70 Shuichi Oyama

Figure 12: Experimental plots two years after being established (August 2010 )

(a) Plot 1: control plot, no waste input. (b) Plot 2: urban waste input 5 kg/m2. (c) Plot

3: urban waste input 10 kg/m2. (d) Plot 4: urban waste input 20 kg/m2. and (e) Plot 5:

urban waste input 45 kg/m2

wind erosion (Bleich and Hammer 1996), but low mounds with a range of ele-

vations superimposed on a flat topography can trap sand and organic matter


that is blown by the strong east winds (first effect of Figure 13). This is the

same technique that Michels et al. (1995) used to alleviate the effects of wind

erosion using millet residue, but crop residues do not usually remain in the

field in this region because of livestock grazing and termite decomposition.

Local people collect crop residue and take it to their homesteads, where it is

eaten by livestock.TheHausa people welcomed the addition of plastic sandals,

bags, metal pots and plates in the waste scattered onto their fields: because

these items do not easily decompose and are not affected by the termites, they

cover the soil and trap windblown sand for longer than organic waste. These

wastes prevent erosive wind and water (second effect).

Figure 13 Eight effects of urban waste inputs used for land restoration

I also considered the various effects of elevated termite activity due to the

waste input. Most of the waste consisted of millet stalks and leaves, leftover

livestock feed and animal excreta.Waste inputs encourage termites to gather.

Termite guts and nests contain symbiotic microorganisms such as bacteria,

protozoa and fungi that decompose cellulose and lignin, fix nitrogen and pro-

ducemethane (Benemann 1973, Lee andWood 1971).These biological activities

alter the chemical properties of the soil and, as a result, termite mounds can

contribute to high levels of soil fertility (Adepegba and Adegoke 1974, Bagine

72 Shuichi Oyama

1984, Benemann 1973, Pomeroy 1976). As a result of this termite activity, ter-

mite shelters develop over the organic matter, these containing concentrated

amounts of organic matter. Termites also dig up small grains of clay and silt

particles in the soil andmix themwith windblown sand (third effect). Termite

tunnels also penetrate the sedimentary layer, allowing rainwater to infiltrate

easily through the tunnels (fourth effect), and an aggregated soil structure is

created as the termites stick grains of sand together with their saliva as they

build their mounds. Our observations showed that the aggregated soil struc-

ture was porous, allowed plant roots to grow and easily penetrate the soil, and

contained oxygen and moisture, both of which are necessary for plant growth

(fifth effect).

These factors ameliorate the poor natural nutrient content and strong aci-

dity, as indicated by the low pH of the parched and degraded land. Organic

matter, including livestock excreta, contains large amounts of nitrogen, phos-

phate and potassium, and significantly improves the chemical properties of

the soil. Urban waste and excreta are neutral to alkaline, and neutralize the

soil acidity (pH 4.5) of the degraded land (sixth effect), as well as adding nut-

rients to the soil (seventh effect).

Finally, urban waste contains seeds of many edible plant species, inclu-

ding millet,Hibiscus sabdariffa,Balanites aegyptiaca and many other plants that

are suitable as feed for livestock (eighth effect). In Sahel, the seeds of the pre-

dominant crop and fodder grass are very small and easily mixed in the urban

waste. These germinate naturally with the arrival of the rainy season; in the

experimental plots we set up, the seeds germinated and grew thanks to the

presence of the moisture and nutrients derived from the waste.

The eight effects described above can be combined to improve soil fertility

and plant growth productivity. According to the estimations of the villagers,

plant growth in plot 3 was not sufficient, but in plots 4 and 5 growth was

sufficient to provide fodder for livestock. In conclusion, theminimumamount

of urbanwaste that should be applied to degraded land to ensure plant growth

productivity is 20 kg/m2, a depth of 3 cm. However, after three years of waste

input without further land management, land degradation began again.

3.6.1. Safety issues with urban waste

I have frequently received questions, comments and criticism regarding the

toxicity of urban waste following its application in the environment. For

example, I have been asked if there are instances where livestock have died


after eating plastic bags. The animals, including cattle, sheep, goats, camels

and donkeys in the Sahel sometimes did eat plastic bags together with fresh

food, but they would never eat plastic bags with spoiled food. The animals

have a good sense of smell. We usually allowed the livestock to enter the

fenced pastureland after a period of more than three months following the

deposition of the urban waste. The livestock never ate plastic bags at that

time. Anyway, I was strongly conscious of avoiding the risk of contamination.

I examined the safety of urban waste for land restoration practices and

analysed the heavy metal concentration of 100 waste samples in the capital

Niamey using energy dispersive x-ray spectrometry (EDX-700HS, Shimad-

zu). Only five samples had harmful levels of heavy metals (bromine, chrome

and lead).These samples were collected from long-term waste dumped at the

roadside, in street ditches and in an industrial area (Figure 14). The urban

waste disposed of directly from homesteads met the safety requirements of

European Union environmental standards. We assume that all urban waste

will contaminate the environment, but actual urban waste from Niamey city

does not contain high levels of pollutants.

Consequently, we can maintain the safety of urban waste for the land res-

toration project by avoiding the use of long-term waste dumped at roadsides,

in street ditches, in the marginalized greenbelt and in industrial areas. I was

able to recognize the safety of urban waste which was dumped immediately

from the house yards. According to chemical analysis, urban waste contains

beneficial materials such as nitrogen, potassium, phosphate, copper, iron,

magnesium, calcium, manganese, sodium and zinc, which are essential for

humans and livestock (Oyama 2015b).

3.6.2. Collecting waste from the city administration to resolve the

financial deficit problem

After a coup d’état in February 2010, a military regime was established in

Niger. Soldiers took over the city administration in Dogondoutchi in an ope-

ration that lasted until the election of January 2011. I returned to Niamey in

October 2011.The next day, I went to Nouveau Marché with my research part-

ner. We bought a 200 m long fence, wire, an entrance door, paint and a brush

for construction of the experimental site. We went to Dogondoutchi City Hall

to get a permit to collect urban waste. We met the mayor and explained our

three objectives: (1) to collect urban waste and therefore clean the residential

area and streets; (2) to restore the degraded land back to pastureland in the

74 Shuichi Oyama

Figure 14: Contaminated urban waste at five sites

Pb-1 to Pb-3: Lead was detected at three sites of street ditch and ash; Cr-1: Chrome was

detected in long-term dumped waste; Br-1: Bromine was detected from the road-side.

fenced area using the urban waste; and (3) to prevent conflicts between far-

mers and herders by allowing the herdsmen to graze their livestock on the

pastureland during the harvest season. The mayor understood the aims of

our project, but explained that there was a budget shortage due to the milita-

ry regime. There were 28 civil servants working in Dogondoutchi at the time,

and they did not receive a salary under the military regime. The waste dispo-


sal trucks were not maintained properly and all of them were out of service.

During this period, the city was not collecting waste from the urban area and

after the election the conditions did not improve due to a financial deficit.The

city was unable to cope with the waste accumulation and dirtiness in the ur-

ban area. The mayor therefore thanked us for cleaning the city and using the

urban waste for land restoration.Wemade an agreement with Dogondoutchi

City Hall, which was detailed in formal documents.

The mayor introduced me to a tractor owner: he was among the wealt-

hiest merchants in Dogondoutchi, owning a hotel, restaurant, several shops,

200 ha of farmland, several hundred cattle, sheep and goats, and a garden

of mango trees and vegetables in a wetland area. He also owned dozens of

houses that were rented out, and had seven vehicles, including one Toyota

land cruiser, one truck and two tractors. He was engaged in the construction

of government buildings, including the city hall, an official residence and wa-

ter wells.

He considered the introduction from the mayor and provided me with

two tractors without rental fees. I paid for the fuel and labour costs for waste

transportation.One journey from the town to the experimental site cost 8,000

CFA francs (16 USD). The size of the carriage was 310 cm (length) × 180 cm

(width) × 60 cm (height). Six youngmen used shovels to haul thewaste into the

carriage. I selected waste that had been recently disposed of in the residential

area in order to avoid issues of contamination.

I recorded the initial weight of the transported waste. Before letting the

15 villagers begin to work, I requested that they wear masks.The temperature

was higher than 40oC and the masks made it uncomfortable to breathe, but

the workers were required to wear the masks all the time because strong wind

sometimes blew the waste and dust. The first carriage transported 1.80 tons

of urban waste, containing millet straw and stems, and pruned branches.The

urban waste in the second and third carriages contained large amounts of

sand and weighed 3.31 and 3.27 tons, respectively. The tractor driver conside-

red that urban waste containing large amounts of sand would be suitable for

land restoration. We calculated the average weight of urban waste per car-

riage to be 2.8 tons. Because an ox cart can carry 400 kg, this amount was

equivalent to seven ox carts.

According to my previous experiment, at least 20 kg/m2 of urban waste

(i.e. the amount used in plot 4) was necessary for land restoration.We estima-

ted that 50 tons of urban waste would therefore be necessary in a 50 × 50 m

plot. This amount was equivalent to 18 tractor loads. To use the same amount

76 Shuichi Oyama

as that applied to plot 5 (45 kg/m2), the amount of urban waste required would

be 112.5 tons, which was equivalent to 40 tractor loads (Figure 15).

Figure 15: Building an experimental plot for restoring the land by urban waste

I hired twenty village men in order to support their livelihoods. We dug

ditches to prevent rainwater from flowing away from the urban waste. To

prevent the wind from blowing away plastic bags, we also carefully placed

sand and sedimentary rocks on any loose plastic material.

The urban waste contained a range of items including worn out sandals,

clothes for women, trousers for men, pots, plastic shopping bags, vinyl bags

used to contain milk and mineral water, and empty boxes of tobacco. The

bones and dung of livestock were found in the waste, as well as human ex-

crement. These items were suitable for land restoration inside the fence, but

were regarded as contamination outside the fence.

The distance from the experimental fence to the village well wasmore than

1 km and the water depth in the well was more than 40 m. We therefore did

not need to worry about the possibility of ground water contamination, but I

decided to dig ten long ditches and 20 half-moon shaped ditches to prevent

rainwater from flowing away from the urban waste over the land surface.


3.6.3. Inviting livestock into the fenced pastureland

In September 2012, I came back to the village with three graduate students

from my university. I went to observe the experimental site as soon as we

arrived at the village.The students followedme to the site. In front of us, green

plants had spread across the degraded land (Figure 16). We counted 39 plant

species, including seven tree species inside the fenced site. In the first year, the

dominant species were crops such as millet, sorghum, watermelon, pumpkin

and groundnuts, and fodder species of Poaceae and Leguminosae. Seeds of these

species were present in the urban waste. Baobab tree, Adansonia digitate, was

present as an ingredient in soups and snacks (Figure 17). People eat the raw

fruit of Piliostigma reticulatum and the leaves and seeds of Balanites aegyptiaca.

The leaves of B. aegyptiaca taste bitter, but are regarded as the “final” famine

food by the villagers: they eat this plant for survival in times of famine. Fruits

of the date palm are produced near the Sahara Desert and are transported

from Agadez to the Sahel towns in Niger. This is a popular food item among

urban dwellers and they dispose of the seeds after consuming the fruit (Figure

18).

Figure 16: Plant survey on the first-year plot

78 Shuichi Oyama

Figure 17: A Fulbe woman collecting baobab leaves on the plot

My Fulbe informant considered there to be sufficient fodder for livestock

in the fenced plot in terms of the variety and quantity of plants. I became

aware that he was reluctant to allow his livestock to enter the fenced site. I

requested that he graze his livestock inside the fenced pastureland, and his

son brought 40 cows and 12 sheep to the site. After they approached the site,

the livestock stopped at the front of the door and hesitated to enter. In a joint

effort, we chased the livestock into the site. When the livestock entered the

site, they started to panic and run around. After a while, they calmed down

and began to eat the grass (Figure 18).

Another Fulbe herder who lived in a neighbouring village asked me, with

some hesitation:

“I cordially request you to build a fenced site in the same way and carry the

urban waste to my village. All of the Fulbe suffer from a shortage of pasture-

land. We are frightened that the farmers will attack us someday in the near

future.”

He spoke in Hausa with idiosyncratic pronunciation. Nevertheless, I unders-

tood his request and made a promise to build the fenced pastureland.


Figure 18: Livestock eating in the grassland created from the urban waste

3.7. Conflict prevention and livestock-induced land restoration

In the Sahel, the number of armed conflicts between farmers and herders has

increased in recent years. According to the Global Terrorism Index 2015 (IEP

2015), there were 1,229 deaths attributed to Fulani (Fulbe) militant attacks in

2014, which was a substantial increase from the 63 deaths recorded in 2013.

Fulbe communities have come into dispute with farming communities over

resources. Fulbe militants have used machine guns and attacks on villagers

to assault and intimidate farmers. To achieve regional stability, it is necessary

to avoid armed conflict between the farmers and herders and to stabilize the

livelihood of the small number of herders (Turner et al. 2011). Most of these

armed conflicts have been caused by livestock-induced crop damage (Oyama

2014).

Livestock-induced crop damage has worsened the relationship between

farmers and herders in two ways (Oyama 2014). Firstly, careless herders lose

sight of their livestock, which then eat the millet in the farmland, leading to

non-intentional livestock-induced crop damage (Figure 19). Secondly, there

is intentional livestock-induced crop damage, where herdsmen deliberately

80 Shuichi Oyama

enter farmland with their livestock and let them consume crops. The farmers

are most concerned about intentional crop damage.

Figure 19: Night grazing

Cattle wake up at 10:00 pm every night and start wandering away from the grazing

camp. The herdsmen follow the livestock as they start night grazing. To fatten the live-

stock, night grazing is an important activity. Most of the herders do not have flash-

lights. They check the position of livestock using moonlight, but they sometimes lose

sight of the animals on dark nights.

Many armed conflicts have occurred between farmers and herders follo-

wing disputes over livestock-induced crop damage. Farmers sometimes use

abusive words to the young herders while the animals are grazing. Some of

them jump to the conclusion that the livestock must have entered their fields

and consumed their crops. Young herders are angered by the insults and fight

back against the farmers. Farmers have also physically attacked herders who

were intentionally grazing livestock on their farmland.

Due to the rapid population increase, cash economy andmarket activities,

the area of farmland is expanding and the area of pastureland is decreasing

rapidly. There has been a persistent misconception of the nature of pasto-


ral economies, combined with increasing land alienation and fragmentation

through government policies and privatization of pasture (Haller et al. 2016).4

At the local level, the herders are finding it difficult to find suitable pasture-

land. The herders living in the village lost their livestock and their livelihoods

due to repeated droughts during the 1970s and 1980s. They now take care of

the farmers’ livestock and receive a small caring fee and some cows’ milk in

return. Young farmers are also suffering from a shortage of farmland.The si-

tuation is becoming increasingly difficult for both farmers and herders, and

the tensions that have arisen have resulted in armed conflict between them.

I was told by one local resident that, “The farmers and herders in the Sa-

hel are friends during the dry season, but become enemies during the rainy

season.” The armed conflicts are limited to the rainy and harvesting seasons.

During this time, the proximity of livestock to farmland is problematic for the

local residents. However, the area of farmland and number of livestock have

both increased drastically. It is therefore unavoidable that livestock will come

into closer proximity with the farmland.

Moritz (2006) suggested that the proximity of livestock to farmland and

the subsequent conflicts could be reduced by decentralizing the regional go-

vernment and authorizing traditional leadership. In the meantime, the num-

ber of deaths due to armed conflicts is increasing. However, as Haller (2002)

and Haller et al. (2013) show, what is necessary is to find a way whereby the

old institutional design can be revitalized, and not decentralization per se,

but local involvement in the co-creation of institutions. In addition, a more

effective approach is not to rely solely on local authorities but to create a plat-

form for local institutions creating dialogues between farmers and herders.

This platform could reduce the proximity of livestock to farmland under these

stressful conditions, but large-scale afforestation without social considerati-

on increases the proximity of livestock to farmland and increases the risk of

armed conflicts between farmers and herders.

After my field experiment was repeated, I proposed a solution to restore

the degraded land and provide pastureland to the small number of herders.

According to this plan, we enclosed an area of at least 50 × 50 m with a fence.

4 Following the independence of the Republic of Niger, the successive governments and

central administrations consisted of the educated, political, urban elitewith ambitions

ofmodernization, continuing to reduce the political, social and economic power of the

chiefs. After ten years of continued cultivation, the use right was transformed into a

property right under the Dirori government regime (1960–1974) (Lund 1998).

82 Shuichi Oyama

The size of the enclosed area was determined by the surrounding landforms,

such as the inselberg and the seasonal river or wadi.We collected urban waste

and transported it to the site. At the end of the rainy season, the farmers

start harvesting millet on their farmland; during this period, there is extreme

tension between farmers and herders. The herders allowed their livestock to

enter the fenced plot at night. During the night, the livestock grazed inside

the fenced site and the herders avoided the night grazing of crops. During

the day, the herders could allow their animals to graze freely both inside and

outside the fenced sites.

However, if the livestock consume all of the grass, the soil nutrition will

deteriorate, and desertification will result. I requested that the herders keep

livestock inside the fenced site during the night for at least two weeks after

they had consumed all of the grass. This enabled the animal dung to provide

soil nutrition for the following year’s plant growth, as well as avoiding live-

stock-induced crop damage and livestock theft during the night.

In October 2017, when the system had been in operation for six years, my

Fulbe informant said to me: “Urban waste could create suitable pastureland.

The cows are satisfied with the fodder and they can relax under the shade of

trees.This is the first time we have seen this during the day time.” To meet his

needs for the creation of pastureland, we had repeatedly removed unnecessa-

ry grass, trees and branches during the six years. He also emphasized the

importance of avoiding livestock-induced crop damage and armed conflicts

with farmers. He was no longer worried about cattle movement at night and

could sleep very well until sunrise (Figure 20).He invited his Fulbe friends and

Tuareg neighbours to graze their livestock inside the fenced pastureland and

welcomedHausa women collecting the edible plants andmedicinal herbs.The

movement can be regarded as the establishment of commonality among the

multi-ethnic residents. This commonality is informal based on face-to-face

relationships, and can be created naturally by the generous-hearted mind of

the residents.

Some farmers complained to me that I gave too much attention to the

herders at the expense of the farmers. The farmers’ concerns were that they

were poor and did not have enough farmland to sustain their livelihoods. Ef-

fectively, the livestock that the herdsmen take care of every day are mostly

the property of farmers. The herdsmen own less than 20 per cent of the live-

stock they manage. In my Fulbe informant’s herd of 40 cows, he owns only

two cows, the other 38 belonging to farmers. The fence construction provides

benefits to all residents, not only for the Fulbe herders but also for the Hausa


Figure 20: Pastureland created from urban waste in September 2017

We repeatedly removed unnecessary trees and grass to make pastureland according to

the requirements of the Fulbe herders. By the sixth year, the plot represented optimal

pastureland for the herders. There was no plastic waste visible on the ground.

farmers whose livestock are fattened. The project also had the aim of pre-

venting armed conflicts between farmers and herders. Such an explanation

proved satisfying for the farmers and they had no further complaints.

3.8. Conclusion: urban waste, new institution and combatingdesertification

From November 2005 to February 2018, we built 34 sites with a total area of

10.03 ha on which urban waste was used to make pastureland.5 After recei-

ving requests from Fulbe and Tuareg herders around the research village, I

5 In order to expand activities for land restoration, the author received support from the

Mitsui & Co. Environment Fund for three years. I would like to show appreciation for

their support.

84 Shuichi Oyama

arranged meetings with a herder client, his family and relatives, the villa-

ge headman and influential persons of the Hausa people in order to discuss

the possibility of site construction. They decided the placement of sites and

took me to the planned sites. Then I worked at the site with the villagers,

including farmers and herders, males and females, the young and the aged,

persons with disabilities and so on. The city mayor issued a letter of permis-

sion every year for our activities. I gave the photocopied letters to both of the

client herders and the village headmen.

My trial was originally based on the local ecological knowledge of Hausa

farmers, carrying urban waste to degraded farmland as part of their everyday

life. Around 2005, this knowledge began to expand to other towns in southern

Niger. Zarma famers in Niamey now also use urban waste to fertilize their

farmland. As I noticed the potential to reduce livestock-induced crop damage

and armed conflicts, I began to experiment with the technique and to apply

this knowledge in the social context. The beneficiaries are not only herders

but also farmers, because the herders take care of the farmers’ livestock and

the farmers can fatten their livestock on the pastureland created. Moreover,

both can avoid paying crop compensation for livestock-induced crop dama-

ge. This trial implies a win-win relationship, or at least not a complete win-

lose situation - a positive fit to the social-environmental system, indicated by

Haller et al. (2013).

I consider my trials, based on local ecological knowledge, as reverse thin-

king. From the perspective of outsiders, when considering the rural area of

the Sahel, we tend to focus on the negative effects of plastic bags and vinyl

products, but I wasmore concerned with the positive effects of combating de-

sertification. Firstly, plastic bags can prevent soil moisture evaporation from

the ground under conditions of strong sunshine and high temperature. Se-

condly, they can catchwindblown sand and organicmatter and retain it on the

degraded land.Thirdly, the plastic bags create a suitable environment for ter-

mite colonies. Termites are regarded as harmful insects that damage wooden

houses, but they create suitable physical conditions in soil for plant growth,

as mentioned by Holt and Lepage (2000). These effects are promoted by the

presence of plastic bags.

It is easy for outsiders living in developed countries to criticize the igno-

rance and mindlessness of farmers with regard to food and environmental

safety by applying urban waste to their farm and pastureland. If I had not

applied the urban waste to the degraded land in order to create new pastu-

reland, I would not have understood why numerous farmers would continue


to collect urban waste from towns and apply it to their farmland. For the

farmers living in southern Niger, the urban waste is an important resource

for improving soil fertility and restoring their farmland. It is used to prevent

land degradation. If we tell them to stop this practice, they will reply, “How

can we maintain soil fertility in the face of land degradation?” and “How can

we harvest enough millet to sustain our families?”

This practice has to be considered against the large-scale initiatives of

the Great Green Wall for the Sahara and the Sahel Initiative, with high in-

vestments and overall rather limited effects. It is a small-scale practice that

restores degraded land and enables more understanding and the building of

sustainable relations between the multi-ethnic and diverse resource users.

Currently, the prevention of desertification, poverty, hunger, armed con-

flict and terrorism is a serious problem in the Sahel, and there are trade-offs

to be considered when highlighting environmental concerns related to the use

of urban waste. In recent years, the international community has given much

attention to hunger, poverty and terrorism in the Sahel because it is strongly

linked to immigration problems in European countries. It is extremely diffi-

cult to solve all the problems in the region, but it is my opinion that military

operations will not be sufficient to prevent armed conflicts and terrorism.

Hunger and poverty are the drivers of armed conflicts and terrorism in the

Sahel and, in turn, armed conflicts and terrorism further exacerbate hunger

and poverty. Both natural and anthropogenic factors have increasingly com-

bined to generate conflicts over the available resources in the Sahel.

Under these severe conditions, a deadlock has been reached, preventing

the situation from being resolved. There is no room for afforestation in the

farmland and many afforestation projects have attempted to chase the her-

ders and their livestock away to protect tree seedlings. By combining scientific

and local ecological knowledge, we can aim to combat desertification, hunger

and poverty, and prevent armed conflicts and terrorism, with the cooperation

of the residents, including urban dwellers, rural farmers and herders. Rever-

se thinking and counter-intuitive approaches combining local and scientific

knowledge could provide mitigation effects which create room for potentially

better and more sustainable solutions.

Acknowledgements

The author would like to express deep appreciation to Tobias Haller and Clau-

dia Zingerli for offering insightful and stimulating comments on this paper.

86 Shuichi Oyama

This research was carried out with financial support from the Japan Society

for the Promotion of Science, Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (KAKENHI

17H04506 and 17H02235)

3.9. References

Adamu, M. (1978). The Hausa factor in West African history. Ibadan: Ahmadu

Bello University Press.

Adepegba, D. and Adegoke, E. A. (1974). A study of the compressive strength

and stabilizing chemicals of termite mounds in Nigeria. Soil Science,

117(3), 175–179.

Ayantunde, A. A., Williams, T. O., Udo, H. M. J., Fernandez-Rivera, S. Hi-

ernaux, P. and van Keulen, H. (2000). Herders’ perception, practice, and

problems of night grazing in the Sahel: Case studies from Niger. Human

Ecology, 28(1), 109–130.

Bagine, R. K. N. (1984). Soil translocation by termites of the genus Odon-

totemes (Holmgran) (Isoptera: Macrotermitinae) in an arid area of north-

ern Kenya. Oecologia, 64, 263–266.

Baier, S. (1980). An economic history of central Niger: Oxford studies in

African affairs. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Benemann, J. R. (1973). Nitrogen fixation in termites. Science, 181(4095),

164–165.

Bleich, K. E. and Hammer, R. (1996). Soils of Western Niger. In: Buerkert, B.,

Allison, B. E. and von Oppen, M. (eds.). Wind erosion in Niger: Implica-

tions and control measures in a millet based farming system (pp. 23–32).

Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.

Brouwer, J. and Powell, J. M. (1998). Increasing nutrient use efficiency in West

African agriculture: The impact of micro-topography on nutrient leaching

from cattle and sheepmanure. Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment,

71, 229–239.

Crang, M. and Cook, I. (2007). Doing ethnographies. Los Angeles: Sage Pub-

lications.

Dregne, H. E. (1986). Desertification of arid lands. In: El-Baz, F. and Hassan,

H. A. (eds.). Physics of desertification (pp. 4–34). Dordrecht: Springer.

Fairhead, J. and Leach,M. (1995). False forest history, complicit social analysis:

Rethinking someWest African environmental narratives. World Develop-

ment, 23(6), 1023–1035.


Gonzalez, P. (2001). Desertification and a shift of forest species in the West

African Sahel. Climate Research, 17, 217–228.

Graef, F. and Haigis, J. (2001). Spatial and temporal rainfall variability in the

Sahel and its effects on farmer’s management strategies. Journal of Arid

Environments, 48, 221–231.

Haller, T. (2002). Common property resource management, institutional

change and conflicts in African floodplain wetland. The African Anthro-

pologist, 9(1), 25–35.

Haller, T. (2003). Rules which pay are going to stay: Indigenous institutions,

sustainable resource use and land tenure among the Ouldeme and Platha,

Mandara Mountains, Northern Cameroon. In: Le Meur, P-Y. and Lund, C.

(eds.). Everyday governance of land in Africa (pp. 117–134). APAD-Bulletin

No 22. London: Lit Verlag.

Haller, T., Fokou, G., Mbeyale, G. and Meroka, P. (2013). How fit turns into

misfit and back: Institutional transformations of pastoral commons in

African floodplains. Ecology and Society, 18(1), 1–16.

Haller, T., van Dijk, Bollig, M., Greiner, C., Schareika, N. and Gabbert, C.

(2016). Conflicts, security andmarginalisation: Institutional change of the

pastoral commons in a “glocal” world. Revue Scientifique et Technique

(International Office of Epizootics), 35(2), 405–416

Heiss, J. P. (2015). Musa: An essay (or experiment) in the anthropology of the

individual. Berlin: Duncker and Humbolt.

Hill, P. (1972). Rural Hausa: A village and a setting.Cambridge,UK: Cambridge

University Press.

Holt, J. A. and Lepage, M. (2000). Termites and soil properties. In: Abe, Y.,

Bignell, D. E. and Higashi, T. (eds.). Termites: Evolution, sociality, sym-

bioses, ecology (pp. 389–407). Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.

IEP (Institute of Economics and Peace) (2015). Global Terrorism Index 2015.

Measuring and understanding the impact of terrorism. IEP Report 36.

Sydney, News York, Mexico City: IEP

Lee, K. E. andWood, T. G. (1971). Termites and soils. London: Academic Press.

Leisinger, K. M., Schmitt, K. and ISNAR. (1995). Survival in the Sahel. The

Hague: International Service for National Agricultural Research.

Lund, C. (1998). Law, power and politics in Niger: Land struggles and the rural

code. Hamburg: Lit Verlag.

Michels, K., Sivakumar, M. V. K. and Allison, B. E. (1995). Wind erosion con-

trol using crop residue II: Effect on millet establishment and yields. Field

Crops Research, 40, 111–118.

88 Shuichi Oyama

Moritz,M. (2006).The politics of permanent conflict: Farmer-herder conflicts

in northern Cameroon. Canadian Journal of African Studies, 40, 101–126.

Mortimore, M. and Turner, B. (2005). Does the Sahelian smallholder’s man-

agement of woodland, farm trees, rangeland support the hypothesis

of human-induced desertification? Journal of Arid Environments, 63,

567–595.

Oyama, S. (2009). Ecological knowledge of Hausa cultivators for the land

degradation process in Sahel, West Africa. Geographical Reports of Tokyo

Metropolitan University, 44, 103–112.

Oyama, S. (2012). Land rehabilitation methods based on the refuse input: Lo-

cal practices of Hausa farmers and application of indigenous knowledge

in the Sahelian Niger. Pedologist, 55(3), 466–489.

Oyama, S. (2014). Farmer-herder conflicts, land rehabilitation, and conflict

prevention in Sahel region of West Africa. African Study Monographs,

50(supplementary), 103–122.

Oyama, S. (2015a). Land degradation and ecological knowledge-based land

rehabilitation: Hausa farmers and Fulbe herders in the Sahel region,West

Africa. In: Reuter, T. (ed.). Averting a global environmental collapse: The

role of anthropology and local knowledge (pp. 165–185). Cambridge, UK:

Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

Oyama, S. (2015b). Tackling the land degradation in Sahel region of West

Africa: Trash input for land rehabilitation, food security and conflict pre-

vention. Kyoto: Showado (in Japanese).

Oyama, S. (2017). Hunger, poverty and economic differentiation generated by

traditional custom in villages in the Sahel, West Africa. Japanese Journal

of Human Geography, 69(1), 27–42.

Oyama, S. and Mammane, I. (2010). Ecological knowledge of Hausa cultiva-

tors and in situ experiment of the land rehabilitation in Sahel,West Africa.

Geographical Repots of Tokyo Metropolitan University, 45, 31–43.

Pomeroy, D. E. (1976). Some effects of mound-building termites on soils in

Uganda. Journal of Soil Science, 27, 377–394.

Prudat, B., Bloemertz, L. and Kuhn, N. (2018). Local soil quality assessment

of north-central Namibia: Integrating farmers’ and technical knowledge.

Soil, 4, 47–62.

Richards, P. (1985). Indigenous agricultural revolution: Ecology and food pro-

duction in West Africa. London: Unwin Hyman.

Schlecht, E. and Buerkert, A. (2004). Organic inputs and farmers’ manage-

ment strategies in millet fields of western Niger. Geoderma, 121, 271–289.


Shinjo, H., Hayashi, K., Abdoulaye, T. and Kosaki, T. (2008). Management of

livestock excreta through corralling practice by sedentary pastoralists in

the Sahelian region of West Africa: A case study in southwestern Niger.

Tropical Agriculture and Development, 52(4), 97–103.

Suzuki, L., Matsunaga, R., Hayashi, K., Matsumoto, N., Tabo. R., Tobita, S.

and Okada, K. (2014). Effects of traditional soil management practices on

the nutrient status in Sahelian sandy soils of Niger, West Africa. Geo-

derma, 223–225, 1–8.

Tschakert, P. (2007). Views from the vulnerable: Understanding climatic and

other stressors in the Sahel. Global Environmental Change, 17, 381–396.

Turner, M. D., Ayantunde, A. Patterson, K. P. and Patterson, E. D. (2011).

Livelihood transitions and the changing nature of farmer-herder conflict

in Sahelian West Africa. Journal of Development Studies, 47(2), 183–206.

4. Energy and the environment in Sub-Saharan

Africa

Household perceptions of improved cookstoves

Sarah Jewitt, Peter Atagher, Mike Clifford, Charlotte Ray and Temilade Sesan

4.1 Introduction

Globally, 2.7 billion people rely on solid biomass fuels like fuelwood, charcoal,

animal dung, grass, shrubs or agricultural residue to meet their cooking and

heating needs. In Sub-Saharan Africa, 80% of households rely on biomass and

many people cook on open fires inside their homes. As well as being fuel inef-

ficient, household members - especially women and children - are exposed to

harmful levels of wood smoke (Bruce et al. 2000, 2015). Analysis of data from

the 2010 Global Burden of Disease study (Lim et al. 2012) identified house-

hold air pollution (HAP) arising from the burning of solid biomass fuels as

the second most common cause of death in eastern, central and western Sub-

Saharan Africa. The same study identified HAP as the third most important

risk factor globally (second for women), causing an estimated 3,478,773 deaths

annually and contributing 4.3% of global disability adjusted life years (DALYs).

They key causes of death linked to HAP include chronic respiratory diseases,

heart disease, childhood pneumonia, cancers, cataracts, and burns (GACC,

nd, IEA and World Bank 2015).

4.1.1. The evolution of improved cookstove initiatives

Improved cookstoves (ICS) designed to burn biomass fuels more cleanly and

efficiently have been promoted by charities, governments and private sector

actors in low-income countries since the late 1940s. Some of the earliest de-

signs sought to reduce smoke (Smith 1989, Sesan 2014) but by the early 1970s,

concerns about fuelwood shortages causing deforestation (Eckholm 1975) hel-

92 Sarah Jewitt, Peter Atagher, Mike Clifford, Charlotte Ray and Temilade Sesan

ped to focus attention on more fuel-efficient stoves (Barnes et al. 1994). At

the same time, attention focused on the gender implications of a reliance

on biomass for cooking and heating as gender divisions of labour often give

the responsibility for biomass collection to women and girls. This can invol-

ve them in spending many hours per day undertaking such work which can

in turn compromise their access to education and the development of skills

needed for a variety of income generating activities (Agarwal 1986). Following

critiques of the scale of fuelwood-related deforestation, however, attention

gradually re-focused on the health and gender impacts of cooking with bio-

mass (Hanbar and Karve 2002, Nagothu 2001, Sesan 2014). More recently,

concern has grown about the climate change impacts of traditional cookstoves

given that they are estimated to emit a third of global carbon monoxide along

with significant emissions of black carbon (soot), nitrous oxide, methane and

non-methane volatile organic compounds (Rosenthal 2009, Venkataraman et

al. 2010). This helped to consolidate a shift towards emphases on the use of

“clean” fuels and cookstoves with potential to offer global environmental and

health benefits (Hanbar and Karve 2002, Nagothu 2001, Simon 2010, Sesan

2014).

To an extent, this reflects the underlying assumptions of the “energy lad-

der” model that household fuel preferences shift, with increasing income,

from a reliance on biomass fuel to transitional fuels such as kerosene and

later to cleaner and more efficient fuels such as gas or electricity (Bruce et al.

2000). Nevertheless, a number of empirical studies have questioned the mo-

del, highlighting the low priority given to the adoption of modern fuels given

competing household economic priorities and the ways in which households

often combine (or “stack”) different fuels in different seasons in order to un-

dertake different types of cooking (Masera et al. 2000, van der Kroon et al.

2013, Ruiz-Mercado and Masera 2015, Treiber et al. 2015).

4.1.2. Recent initiatives promoting clean fuels and cookstoves

Despite a plethora of interventions, however, the adoption and sustained

use of clean and improved cookstoves remained low globally, prompting the

establishment, in 2010, of the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves (GACC)

which seeks to “foster the adoption of clean cookstoves and fuels in 100

million households” by 2020 (GACC, 2017a). To this end, GACC promotes

the use of the International Working Agreement’s (IWA) stove tier system

which sets out guidelines for rating stoves according to their efficiency/fuel

http://cleancookstoves.org/about/

Energy and the environment in Sub-Saharan Africa 93

use, safety, indoor emissions and total emissions. As with the energy ladder,

there is an assumption that increasing socio-economic status encourages

households to make a linear transition to the use of higher tier stoves (GACC

2017b; Ray et al. 2017)

Working alongside GACC, Sustainable Energy for All (SE4ALL) has focu-

sed on including energy in the post-2015 global goals and making efforts to

meet theUNGeneral Assembly’s key targets to “ensure universal access tomo-

dern energy services, double the global rate of improvement in energy effici-

ency and double the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix” (IEA

and World Bank 2015: 38). As part of this role, SE4ALL has collaborated with

the Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP), IEA andWorld

Bank to prepare indicators for Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG7) which

seeks to “ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy

for all” by 2030 (UN, 2016a). Echoing historical variations in the thrust of ear-

lier cookstove interventions, SE4ALL and GACC have respectively emphasized

how “non-solid fuels”1 and clean cookstoves can provide health gains, impro-

ve fuel use efficiency and wider environmental benefits associated with lower

levels of greenhouse gas emissions and forest decline (Lewis and Pattanayak

2012, Bielecki and Wingenbach 2014).2 Recognizing the gender implications

of a reliance on biomass fuels, GACC has also linked low levels of female em-

powerment to the failure to include energy in the Millennium Development

Goals (GACC, nd).

SE4ALL, meanwhile, has been instrumental in developing a “global

tracking framework” (GTF) to provide baseline data for SDG7 targets in

terms of access to “modern cooking solutions” (IEA and World Bank 2015:

1 Solid fuel use (e.g. wood, crop residue, dung or charcoal) in low-income countries has

been linked to inefficient combustion and negative health impacts while the use of

non-solid fuels such as biogas, LPG, electricity, ethanol, natural gas and solar ener-

gy (BLEENS) is associated with more efficient and cleaner, healthier cooking practices

(IEA andWorld Bank, 2015). Although kerosene is classed as a non-solid fuel, it tends to

be excluded from this group of more desirable fuels because of the pollution it causes

as well as the risk it presents in terms of burn-related domestic injuries.

2 GACC’s target of clean cookstove adoption by 100million households (of the estimated

2.9 billion that rely primarily on solid fuels – GTF 2015), echoes the target of Millen-

nium Development Goal (MDG) 7C to halve the proportion of the population without

sustainable access to basic sanitation which was criticised for focusing on promoting

uptake among the “low hanging fruit” of higher income with no previous sanitation

access.

http://cleancookstoves.org/technology-and-fuels/standards/iwa-tiers-of-performance.html

http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/energy/

http://cleancookstoves.org/binary-data/ATTACHMENT/file/000/000/192-1.pdf


48) and the “percentage of population with primary reliance on non-solid

fuels” (IEA and World Bank 2015: 3). These data suggest that the number of

solid fuel users globally rose from 2.8-2.9 billion with significant inequalities

in access to non-solid fuels (5% and 40% respectively) between poorer and

wealthier groups (IEA and World Bank 2015: 55-56). Unlike the GTF, however,

SDG indicator 7.1.2 which tracks the “proportion of population with primary

reliance on clean fuels and technology” (UN 2016b) makes no reference to

either non-solid fuels or cooking. SDG7’s retention of the GTF’s focus on

tracking “primary reliance” on cooking fuels and technologies, meanwhile,

discourages data collection on whether households use of a range of different

fuels (stacking) in order to adjust to factors like fluctuating fuel prices,

seasonal fuel availability or changes in the number of people they are coo-

king for (Masera et al. 2000, Ruiz-Mercado et al. 2011, Rehfuess et al. 2014,

Ruiz-Mercado and Masera 2015, Loo et al. 2016, Lozier et al. 2016).

4.1.3. Neglect of end-user preferences

Despite emphases by GACC and SE4ALL on the environmental, health and

gender benefits associated with clean fuel and cookstove use, end-user per-

spectives continue to be marginalized and there has been limited evidence to

date of the use of participatory approaches to either better understand barri-

ers to the adoption of clean fuel and cookstoves or promote their use. Accord-

ing to Sesan (2014: 6) initiatives promoting more efficient cookstoves in the

1970s and 1980s were characterized as a “straightforward technical challenge”

with limited end-user engagement. From the 1990s, emphasis within the sto-

ve sector shifted towards more commercially-oriented initiatives producing

efficient but often unaffordable stoves lacking key features prioritized by end-

users (Simon 2010, Sesan 2014, Jewitt and Rahman 2017).

A common feature of improved cookstove initiatives has been the use of

more quantitative, techno-centric approaches that produce highly efficient

stoves that lack key functions required or desired by their end-users (IEEE

2014, Ray et al. 2014, 2017). This has occurred despite the weak relationship

between socio-economic status and the use of biomass for cooking pointing

to low levels of demand for “clean” or “efficient” stoves and strong user prefe-

rences for solid fuels (IEA and World Bank 2015: 63). After all, in areas where

solid fuel can be gathered free of cost, stoves that require fuel to be purchased

are unlikely to be attractive given other demands on household budgets.


Efforts to address similar constraints in the sanitation sector (“free of

cost” open defecation versus costly sanitation systems), also met with fre-

quent failure when technology-oriented initiatives were employed in areas

with low demand for latrines. This prompted the development of social mar-

keting approaches, participatory community-led “total sanitation” initiatives

(CLTS) that proved far more successful in stimulating sanitation uptake (Kar

2003, Evans 2005, Kar and Pasteur 2005, Jenkins and Sugden 2006, Jenkins

and Scott 2007, Peal et al. 2010, O’Reilly and Louis 2014, Arickal and Khanna

2015).

Common examples of participatory tools used in CLTS include social

mapping exercises to identify commonly used open defection (OD) sites

and transect walks to illustrate faecal-oral transmission routes between OD

and food preparation sites. These are supported by community-designed

mechanisms such as regular monitoring of OD sites to create social pressure

to maintain this behaviour. This is important in helping to promote the

realization that individual wider environmental health benefits can only

occur if change occurs at the community level (Kar 2003, Kar and Pasteur

2005). Until quite recently, however, evidence of such approaches being used

for cookstoves has been limited (Graham 2015, Rosenbaum 2015).

4.1.4. Limitations of fuel and ICS monitoring

Compounding the drawbacks associated with poor end-user engagement in

cookstove promotion initiatives is a tendency for existing fuel and cookstove

use monitoring mechanisms to ignore the complexity and fluidity of house-

hold energy use. In contrast to the energy ladder’s assumptions of upwards

progress in a linear manner, families are just as likely to move “down” the

ladder in response to rising prices for their primary cooking fuel (IEA and

the World Bank 2015). Their “primary” fuel use may also vary seasonally in

response to changes in weather or resource availability while the importance

of fuel or stove “stacking” (Masera et al. 2000) is unlikely to be captured using

current monitoring approaches.

Reflecting these shortcomings, improved cookstove (ICS) interventions

and monitoring systems have been criticized for failing to understand the

complex ways in which household cooking systems are embedded in local

cultures and livelihoods (Ruiz-Mercado et al. 2011, Ray et al. 2014, Sesan 2014,

Ruiz-Mercado and Masera 2015). At the same time, there is increasing reco-

gnition within the ICS literature of the need to understand and respond to


the priorities and preferences of end-users (Beyene and Koch 2013, Kohlin et

al. 2011). Increasingly, research has called for the greater use of qualitative,

participatory methods to explore the non-technical dimensions of ICS disse-

mination and understand socio-economic and cultural factors affecting fuel

and stove choices (Ray et al. 2014, 2017).

4.1.5. Research problem and contribution

Drawing on participatory “bake/cook-off” events in the UK,Malawi and Zam-

bia plus empirical evidence from Benue State, Nigeria, sections 3 and 4 of this

chapter provide insights into how context-specific end-user priorities coupled

with constraints associated with different settings often inhibit a linear shift

towards sustained use of one clean cooking system. Attention is drawn to

how cooking practices, preferences and taboos tend to vary over space with

factors such as socio-economic status, environmental change, cultural norms

associated with cooking, fuel availability/cost, family size, ethnicity, age or

gender often having a significant influence on both household energy prefe-

rences and whether a particular fuel or cookstove is likely to be accepted and

adopted. Particular emphasis is placed on how households understand and

access environmental resources in order to meet their daily energy needs and

why many still prefer to use solid biomass for their cooking needs; especially

where it can be gathered free of cost.

The chapter’s originality and rigour lies in its use of qualitative methods

along with participatory approaches to obtain end-user priorities for cooking

fuels and technologies in contexts where households commonly use a range

of different systems and make frequent shifts between them. Its significance

lies in its emphasis on the need to develop participatory approaches that will

help to improve monitoring and better understand end-user preferences and

engage them in ICS design, production and dissemination initiatives.

4.2. Methodological approaches

A range of qualitative methods and participatory approaches were utilized

in this research as a means of developing innovative approaches for sharing

interdisciplinary academic and user-based perspectives on “improved” cook-

stove and household energy systems. Phase onewas associatedwith a series of

“bake/cook-off” events to elicit end-user perspectives on a range of ICS while


phase 2 involved in-depth field-based research on cooking practices and prio-

rities in Benue state, Nigeria (see Figure 1).

Figure 1: Map of bake/cook-off events and field-based research


4.2.1. Bake/cook-off events

The bake-off event that took place at Nottingham University in September

2015 was attended by volunteers from the Nottingham Women’s Cultural Ex-

change, academic researchers, development practitioners and policy makers.

The volunteers came from a range of African countries (includingNigeria, Eri-

trea, Sudan, andMalawi) and all had previous experience of cooking with bio-

mass fuels. At the event, a range of improved cookstoves were made available

and the volunteers were invited to cook typical food from their home coun-

tries on their chosen stove and share their experiences of using this stove with

the workshop attendees. A key aim of the bake-off was to create opportunities

to observe different ICS in action and how end-users interact with them as

a means promoting discussion and enhancing understandings of user prefe-

rences, performance, safety and wider cultural (especially gender) considera-

tions surrounding energy/fuel choice.

To encourage broader discussions about the different technologies used at

the event, a range of participatory exercises were used to help volunteers and

attendees to identify and discuss what they liked and disliked about the diffe-

rent stoves and compare views. This in turn led to fruitful discussions about

how differences in priorities between policy makers, stove manufacturers and

end-users could impact on the adoption and sustained use of ICS.

The “bake/cook-off” format was adapted for use in Malawi in March 2016

as part of a “Great African Cook-off” event at the Cleaner Cooking Camp Con-

ference3 which brought together national and international stove enthusiasts

to discuss challenges around clean cooking in Malawi and test a range of sto-

ves for end-user acceptability. As with the Nottingham bake-off, this event

provided a designated space for attendees to interact with participating cooks

and was attended by a range of stakeholders including government, donor

organizations and INGOs as well as the Malawian Minister for Energy. Later

in 2016, a second “Great African Cook-off” event took place in Livingstone,

Zambia, where members of the public, stove producers, policy makers and

charitable organizations gathered to share knowledge and learn about rocket

stoves, solar cookers, imported gasifier stoves, improved charcoal burners and

handmade clay rocket stoves. As insights gained from the Nottingham event

played a key role in shaping the research questions and methodologies used

3 This annual event is supported by the National Cookstoves Steering Committee and

led by the Energizing Development Programme (EnDev).


in the field-based research in Benue, these will be discussed in more detail

below.

4.2.2. Field-based research in Benue State

Benue state was chosen as a location for the field-based research on the basis

of the high but declining level of dependence on wood as a domestic cooking

fuel coupled with one of the author’s familiarity with the area and his ability

to speak Tiv. From the perspective of undertaking participatory research, this

author’s role as an “insider” as well as an “outsider” (born and raised in Be-

nue state but educated overseas and undertaking research in Benue) placed

him in an excellent position to mediate between “outside” researchers and lo-

cal community members (Mosse 2008) whilst translating the research agenda

into a methodological approach that engaged participants. At the same time,

his familiarity with local socio-economic and cultural norms helped in gai-

ning access to local community members and building trust; eliciting, in the

process, information regarding changes in local cooking practices and prefe-

rences and the cultural norms surrounding them. Local knowledge of wider

policies affecting fuel and stove availability, seasonal weather patterns, their

influence on employment opportunities and associated rural-urban migrati-

on rhythms were also important for planning appropriate times for underta-

king different elements of the research. The “outsider” perspectives of other

team members and bake/cook-off participants, meanwhile, helped to ensure

that research questions and methodological approaches arising from these

events along with shortcomings associated with broader fuel and cookstove

dissemination and monitoring trends could be addressed by the methodolo-

gies employed in the study sites.

Benue is located in north-central Nigeria and has an estimated population

of 4 million in an area of 30,800 km2. The dominant ethnic groups in Benue

are the Tiv with around 69% of the population followed by the Idoma and the

Igede which make up around 23% of the population (NBS/CBN/NCC 2011).

According to Ali and Victor (2013), socio-economic development in the state is

strongly dependent on the charcoal and firewood trades.Dapo and Emmanuel

(2013) found that the majority (76.7%) of households that used charcoal as a

cooking fuel spent an average of N33104 on this monthly, while 23.3 percent

of households spent N2394 monthly on alternative cooking fuels. Firewood

4 At the time of the research, £1 was N396


and charcoal are more readily available in the state than kerosene so there are

competing demands for these fuels for cooking and other exigencies. Both

fuels can be purchased from roadside traders although many households are

willing to travel several kilometres to collect firewood for free.

In order to provide to help with the selection of sites for community-ba-

sed data collection, state-level data from the 2008, 2010, 2013 and 2015 De-

mographic Health Surveys (DHS) for Nigeria were obtained and information

on the type of fuels household mainly use for cooking was analyzed for rural

and urban areas of Benue using SPSS. This revealed that in 2008, 93.4% of

households used wood as their main cooking fuel with 4.5% using kerosene

and 0.3% using charcoal. A very small number of households used natural gas

but none reported electricity or Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) as their main

cooking fuel in the 2008 survey. Subsequent surveys revealed a slight decline

in the use of wood as the main cooking fuel (92% in 2010, 88.2% in 2013 and

79.1% in 2015) while kerosene use rose slightly before declining (6.5% in 2010,

8.5% in 2013 and 6.6% in 2015) and charcoal use increased (2% in 2013 and 6.2%

in 2015) along with natural gas (negligible in 2010 and 1.4% in 2015)

DHS data also revealed significant variations between rural and urban

areas, however, with 42% of urban households relying on wood, 44% relying

on kerosene, 7% on electricity, 5% on charcoal and 2% on LPG as their main

cooking fuel compared to 84% relying on wood, 10% on kerosene, 5% on elec-

tricity and 1% on charcoal in rural areas. According to surveys conducted by

the National Bureau of Statistic (NBS), Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) andNa-

tional Communication Commission (NCC) conducted across Nigeria in 2010,

urban households spend an average of N970 andN1233 permonth on firewood

and charcoal (NBS/CBN/NCC 2011).

Information was obtained from three sites chosen on the basis of their

contrasting fuel availability. Site 1 is an urban community within the state

capital, Makurdi, where LPG, electricity and charcoal are available in addition

to fuelwood. LPG is available from a gas refilling plant where a 10kg cylinder

can be refilled for N1800.The cost of gas stoves ranges fromN12672 to N93000

while a two burner electric stove costs N21,000.Demand for firewood here has

increased as a result of brick-making activities in the area which has forced up

prices.The town’s proximity to the state capital coupled with the presence of a

gas refilling plant has enabled some households to access to ICS and modern

fuels such as electricity and gas thus providing useful insights into the value

attached to ICS and modern fuels compared to more “traditional” cooking

systems. The presence of a brewing company has encouraged in-migration


for employment purpose which has in turn stimulated the development of a

range of food restaurants which - in the absence of large capacity improved

cookstoves - cater for the town’s population using wood on open fires as their

key fuel. Restaurant owners along with many local residents travel several

miles outside the community to collect free firewood.

Site 2 is a peri-urban community with a long-standing reliance on fire-

wood as the primary cooking fuel. Firewood is purchased from communities

across the river and transported by canoes. Households that do not have the

economic resources to purchase firewood travel several kilometers outside

the community to gather it free of cost as local woodland areas have been ex-

hausted. Most households prepare meals on three-stone fires placed outside

their dwellings although some make additional use of kerosene and “Abacha”

stoves which are usually constructed of steel and use charcoal as their primary

source cooking fuel.5 Kerosene stoves cost around N8000 compared to N3000

for an Abacha stove.

Site 3 is a rural community and households travel shorter distances to

obtain their cooking fuel as they have access to state-managed plantations.

Livelihoods are dominated by trading and the processing of farm produce

although fuelwood selling is also widespread. Although some households own

gas, kerosene and Abacha stoves,many have reverted to using three stone fires

to reduce the costs of purchasing fuel. Restaurant owners here cook on three-

stone fires rather than improved stoves as they consider the former the best

option for cooking large quantities of food.

4.2.3. Field-based methodologies

The research was conducted in two phases with findings from the pilot phase

being used to refine the research questions. The targets of the community-

based research were households from different socio-economic and ethnic

groups in the three study sites that used a range of different fuel and cook-

stove types. The study employed household surveys, focus group discussions,

participatory appraisal tools and direct observation to understand decisions

and preferences relating to cookstove and fuel use in the context of broa-

der household socio-economic priorities. Participants that took part in focus

group discussions during the pilot phase were later re-visited to enable more

5 Abacha stoveswere introduced inNigeria in 1994 by theMilitaryHead of State General

Sani Abacha in response to kerosene shortages and resulting price hikes.


detailed information on household cooking practices and preferences to be

obtained. In order to gather gendered perspectives on household energy and

cooking preferences, data was collected by both male and female researchers.

Drawing on emphasis by Ruiz-Mercado and Masera (2015) on the need

to understand the cultural dynamics driving households’ fuel choices and

cooking device priorities, focus group discussions and participatory exerci-

ses were carried out with 49 (14 male, 35 female) participants. At the same

time, participatory ranking exercises were undertaken to provide understan-

dings of where stove and fuel choice sat within broader household priorities

and aspirations. In each study site, 21 household surveys were undertaken to

obtain information on household demographics, existing fuel and stove use,

fuel and cooking preferences and perceptions of different stove features. At

the same time, household observations were carried out and fieldnotes we-

re taken in order to obtain complementary data for comparison across the

sample categories.

Semi-structured interviews were undertaken with 3 male community el-

ders in each study site to elicit information on existing cooking practices and

the extent to which these have changed over time. Two (male) stove artisans

were also interviewed to elicit information on State government strategies

and policy support programmes (if any) for developing the sector. Additio-

nal elite interviews were carried out with government employees in relevant

Ministries. At the state level, the Director of Forestry in the Ministry of En-

vironment and Urban Development, Benue State, was interviewed to explore

programmes related to ICS interventions and energy policy in Benue. At the

national level, interviews were conducted with a scientific officer within the

Energy Commission and with a director in the Ministry of Women’s Affairs

and Social Development as both had responsibility for implementing ener-

gy-related policy decisions. Qualitative data derived from these methods we-

re transcribed and exported into NVivo 10, coded and analyzed qualitatively,

using thematic analysis to group emerging themes. Quantitative data from

the household surveys were coded in Microsoft Excel 2013 and analyzed with

a zero non-response.


4.3. End-user priorities for cooking systems: results from thebake/cook-off events

All three bake/cook-off events were highly participatory in nature as they fo-

cused around end-users identifying criteria that they associated with “impro-

ved” cookstoves and then choosing one or more ICS to prepare food on (see

Figure 2).

Each event then provided opportunities to use a range of improved cook-

stoves with a key theme being the sharing of multi-disciplinary and user-ori-

ented perspectives on what is understood as an “improved” cooking or house-

hold energy system. At the Nottingham bake-off the range of different stoves

in use and on display and the food being cooked provided foci for the discus-

sion and elicited a range of questions from participants including academics

with different disciplinary backgrounds (engineering, science and technology

studies, education, psychology, human factors, business, nursing, health sci-

ences, sociology, development studies, geography, built environment), mem-

bers of the public, development practitioners, NGOs and policy makers.

The fact that participants were able to experience key stove characteris-

tics first hand (e.g. smokiness, controllability, stability, cooking speed, fuel

efficiency etc.) was enormously effective in enhancing understandings of the

advantages and constraints associated with using different stoves while dis-

cussions with cooks on their cooking experiences provided important insights

into wider socio-cultural practices surrounding household energy use in en-

ergy-poor low-income country contexts.

At the end of the bake/cook-off sessions, participants were asked to note

down their observations about the different stoves they viewed in operation

as well as an additional selection of stoves that were left out for viewing but

not lit. As a key emphasis was to collect views from a range of disciplinary and

stakeholder perspectives, they were not provided with any guidance on how

to structure their comments. Key observations focused around affordability,

safety (especially linked to re-fuelling mechanisms but also stability-related

issues), smokiness (especially in confined spaces), efficiency, durability, con-

trollability and versatility (see Figure 3)

The cooks, meanwhile, were asked to re-visit the criteria they associated

with ICS and then undertake a participatory ranking exercise to examine the

performance of each stove according to these different criteria. As part of

this process, they were encouraged to discuss wider cultural (including gen-

der) considerations surrounding energy/fuel preferences and share experi-


Figure 2: Great African Cook-Off in Malawi. Picture: Charlotte Ray

and Maria Beard


Figure 3: Word cloud of participant observations from the Nottingham bake-off

ences regarding variations in user priorities in different socio-economic and

cultural settings. As can be seen from Figures 3 and 4, many of the criteria

identified prior to the bake-off remained the same, but having used the diffe-

rent stoves, a number of additional criteria were identified for thematrix ran-

king exercise (see Figure 5). At the Nottingham bake-off, these focused main-

ly around safety issues including stability and burn-related risks for adults

(linked to lighting and re-fuelling the stoves) and children. Criteria linked to

controllability, versatility and cleanliness, meanwhile, increased in importan-

ce as a result of widespread admiration among the cooks for the EcoZoom

La Plancha Stove with dual hotplates and an oven, the Ace 1 stove with a USB

charger and the Clean cookstove which offered controllability and did not dir-


ty the cooking pots. These user-preferences are reflected in the final matrix

ranking in which the La Plancha and Ace stoves scored the highest on usabi-

lity-related criteria by the cooks but were considered expensive (around £320

and £130 respectively) so received low scores for cost.

Figure 4: Word cloud of participant observations from the Nottingham bake-off

Discussions of stove “stacking” also took place as the cooks debated which

stoves were best for cooking different types of food along with external influ-

ences (e.g. rules associated with living in rented accommodation) on the types

of cooking systems that could be used. Other interesting observations that

arose from discussions between cooks and with participants focused around

how easy the different stoves were to light, how quickly they reached coo-

king temperature and the ease with which they could be re-fuelled.The latter


Figure 5: Cooks’ matrix ranking from Nottingham bake-off

discussions were particularly interesting as they brought to light concerns as-

sociated with taking the pot off the stove to add fuel. Some cooks discussed

the safety implications of removing a pot full of hot liquid to add fuel while

others mentioned that removing the pot from the flame is regarded as taboo

in some cultural contexts.

Accounts from different domestic settings, meanwhile, indicated that

household members with responsibility for cooking, fuel gathering and

cleaning dirty pots often had little control over domestic budgets so in the

absence of serious health problems, changes would be unlikely to occur.

In the Nottingham bake-off, where the cooks mostly had a background as

refugees or asylum seekers and had become used to using electric or gas

cookers in the UK, the smokiness and dirty pots produced by the charcoal

and fire-wood fuelled stoves were a greater concern than it was the case in

the Malawi and Zambia cook-off events where the cooks had less exposure

to non-solid fuels. These observations along with those of the workshop

participants were later transcribed and used to inform the content of the


household surveys, semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions and

participatory tools used in the Benue fieldwork.

4.4. Community-level perspectives on cooking systems and fuelchoices in Benue

Themain period of fieldwork in Benue took place over a period of six months

between December 2015 and May 2016 although a pilot phase was undertaken

in Spring 2015 with the purpose of making contact with the proposed stu-

dy communities, piloting the household survey and undertaking some focus

group discussions to identify key issues relating to fuel and cookstove use and

preferences in the different sites.

4.4.1. Class and gender as influences on ICS and fuel use

Echoing GTF data indicating low uptake of non-solid fuel use by low-income

groups (IEA and World Bank 2015), financial constraints were highlighted in

the study sites as a key influence on cooking system choices, although broader

cultural influences, such as Tiv traditions of hospitality, sometimes inter-

sected these choices. Aside from a reliance on three stone fireplaces when

catering for social gatherings or large family sizes, group discussions indi-

cated that low-income groups tended to use three stone fireplaces with fire-

wood while the use of clean cooking technologies such as gas and electric

stoves was more pronounced amongst higher income groups.6 As one low-

income householder mentioned:

“We have limited resources … so we predominately cook with firewood” (In-

terview two: Site 2, 2015).

In addition to income status, gender has an important influence on decisions

about stove and fuel choice in the study sites with men tending to defer to

women in recognition of their responsibility for household food preparation.

As one female respondent noted:

6 Income groups in the study sites were identified using a range of indictors including

number of income-earners in the household, their approximate income levels and key

household expenses including the average cost of household energy.


“My husband understands that I am the onewho is always in the kitchen and

would be in a better position to understand my needs so when I ask him to

purchase anything in the kitchen including a stove he quickly obliged” (Focus

group one: Site 3, 2015).

This view was also echoed by most male focus group participants who in-

dicated that decisions of stove purchases would be largely in the hands of

women; even at the point where requests for household finances were made.

As two male respondents noted:

“A woman … ordinarily she is the cook and our culture is such that she is the

‘commander’ in the kitchen so whatever she said at any moment is the last

order and the husband has to obey, so the decision rests with the woman”

(Focus group one: Site 1, 2015).

“Cooking duties are exclusively reserved for women and men are strongly

forewarned to stay clear of cooking” (Interview two, Site 2, 2015).

One negative impact of women’s responsibility for stove and fuel choices is

that they also tend to have responsibility for collecting fuel for these stoves.

This often involves significant drudgery and whenmen often get time to relax

after returning from the fields, women often have to go in search of fuelwood

and water to enable them to fulfil their domestic responsibilities. This is par-

ticularly burdensome for families that have to travel long distances to collect

fuelwood.

4.4.2. Access to firewood

Firewood availability was mentioned as a particular constraint in Site 2 al-

though interestingly, this was not linked to deforestation but rather to the

conversion of former forest and bush land into farmland. A consequence of

this was that household members now have to travel up to 6km to collect free

fuel and there were many complaints of firewood collection having become

very “time-consuming” and “a tedious process” (Focus group two: Site 2, 2015).

Respondents reported that:

“Since firewood around the community has been exhausted we travel to the

hinterland covering 10km each trip. Although each of the journeys is not

pleasing, we live like a family now. When anyone brings it home … it has

to be shared among the households that don’t have strength to cover such

distances” (Female. Focus group one: Site 2, 2015).


“Sometimes when I go out to collect firewood ... when I have a lot of visitors

... It’s really difficult … difficult to get the quantity that will be enough to

cook a meal that will accommodate everybody, so we have to go back again

and again. This is tedious and we are suffering so much because of firewood

collection but we don’t have a choice” (Female. Focus group one: Site 3, 2015).

Other households had felt compelled by time poverty to start purchasing their

firewood and complaints about the cost of firewood were common with one

respondent stating that:

“Firewood ... in this community is our major problem, N1007 worth of fire-

woodwon’t be enough to prepare ameal for a family of three and firewood is

almost going into extinction” (Male village elder. Interview one: Site 2, 2015).

4.4.3. Smoke-related concerns versus household budget constraints

Many respondents acknowledged how the discomfort of the smoke generated

by three stone fireplaces and in some cases, concern about the health impacts

of smoke had resulted in a desire to shift to a “cleaner” stove:

“My wife … was experiencing pains in her eyes and when I took her to the

hospital, I ended up spending so much money such that I have no savings

again. Since then if she makes a demand in the kitchen, I quickly respond to

it … unless I don’t have [the means to do so]” (Male. Focus group two: Site 3,

2015).

“When the smoke becomes so intense we make a demand that a stove be

purchased. So women are the ones that make a demand that a stove be pur-

chased” (Female. Focus group two: Site 2, 2015).

There was also some acknowledgement of the advantages of “cleaner” stoves

in terms of cleaner homes or less drudgery associated with cleaning sooty

pans:

“Since I have been using the Abacha stove, my cooking pots have remained

clean but the three-stone fire produces a lot of smoke and dirt … you don’t

experience that with Abacha stoves” (Female, Focus group one. Site 1, 2015).

“Three stone fires andfirewood smokemakes the kitchen look untidy includ-

ing the cooking pots” (Female village elder. Interview two: Site 3, 2015).

7 £0.33 in February 2015.


Other respondents acknowledged the nuisance caused by smoke but said that

they felt financially constrained from moving to higher tier cooking devices:

“I am not comfortable cooking with firewood, and since I don’t have money

to buy kerosene I use firewood onmy three-stone fire” (Female. Focus group

one: Site 3, 2015).

“Smoke … I am not comfortable with it … when I cook with firewood on my

three-stone fire ... it is difficult because of smoke … and I have to close the

kitchen door and stay outside … periodically I go back inside the kitchen to

tend the fires. It is notmy desire to cook on a three-stone fire but in our com-

munity I have to cook in this way since I don’t have alternatives” (Female. Fo-

cus group one: Site 2, 2015).

“Despite our … awareness of different cooking technologies … we still use

firewood because we have limited resources to purchase these technologies

... We are aware of gas stoves for example but as I said earlier we are con-

strained by our low levels of income so themajority of people in this commu-

nity cannot afford to redirect it to other non-profit yielding ventures” (Male

village elder. Interview two: Site 2, 2015).

As the above quote suggests, despite the difficulties and costs associated with

obtaining firewood and the smokiness of three stone fires, purchasing im-

proved cookstoves was not regarded as a priority although some respondents

suggested that they might be more popular in urban areas where the cost

of fuelwood is higher. Even amongst a group of higher income households,

however, improved cooking devices were placed below children’s education,

owning a business and owning property in a list of household priorities.

4.4.4. Socio-cultural factors influencing stove and fuel stacking

Further probing on this point coupled with direct observation revealed that

most households owned more than one type of cooking device and the use of

two devices at the same time was quite common depending on user priorities

and the type or quantity of food being cooked. Echoing the literature on stove

stacking (Masera et al. 2000, Ruiz-Mercado et al. 2011, Rehfuess et al. 2014,

Ruiz-Mercado and Masera 2015), this allowed households flexibility to switch

between cooking devices according to particular user preferences, changes in

fuel availability or costs and household cooking requirements. Among house-

holds that owned a range of cooking devices, it was clear that reliability and


maintenance considerations were important influences on their willingness

to purchase a new stove.

Some also raised concerns about the reliability of improved stoves and

how easily they could be repaired if problems arose with them:

“If we have good artisans that can repair the stove then we won’t have any

problems; otherwise it will be difficult to use and maintain the stove” (Fe-

male. Focus group two: Site 2, 2015).

As only site 1 had a stove repair workshop, however, a lack of access to sto-

ve repair artisans was identified as a barrier to the adoption of ICS that re-

spondents were unfamiliar with or did not trust the quality and robustness

of.

In contrast with the energy ladder model, households were found to shift

down as well as up tiers in response to changing financial circumstances or

fuel costs:

“I cook mainly on my three-stone fire … though I have electric, kerosene and

Abacha stoves but … [the] electric stove, has high electricity bills associated

with it. I can’t afford continuous usage and the price of kerosene too is high8

but the Abacha stove is okay given my lean resources” (Female. Focus group

one: Site 1, 2015).

“I have a gas stove, though I stopped using it because of the refilling, trans-

portation charges ... all these have been …major problems and I now usemy

Abacha stove” (Female. Focus group two: Site 2, 2015).

“I have a kerosene stove as well as my three-stone fire but I don’t use it any

longer since kerosene is very expensive. I now use my three-stone fire al-

though the price of firewood is almost the same as kerosene” (Female. Focus

group one: Site 2, 2015).

“We cookmainly on the three-stone fire … thoughwe have electric, kerosene

and Abacha stoves, my daughters prefer the three-stone fire to these stoves”

(Male. Focus group one: Site 1, 2015).

Other respondents described how they would choose their cooking devices

according to the social situation they found themselves in:

“I have a kerosene stove and my three-stone fire and I use them at the same

time to prepare meals” (Male. Focus group two: Site 3, 2015).

8 Kerosene is sold at N115 in most gas stations in the study area.


“I use my gas cooker when I have visitors because I normally want to stay

around them so I cook inside the kitchen which is close to my sitting room

butwhen I amwithmy family I cook theirmeals onanAbacha stove” (Female.

Focus group one: Site 1 2015).

“I have two stoves (kerosene and Abacha) in addition to my three-stone fire.

If needed we would use all of them at the same time to cook the quantity of

meal that would satisfy all visitors” (Male. Focus group two: Site 3, 2015).

In Tiv households where it is a cultural tradition for households to prepare

large quantities of food as an indicator of socio-economic status, three stone

fireplaces were particularly favoured as they allowed the cooking of large

meals and/or catering for larger family sizes. Some participants reported that

as a large household size is viewed as a blessing, they feel the need to prepare

large quantities of food on a regular basis to satisfy the household as well as

visitors. These results suggest families may outgrow their smaller improved

cookstoves and revert to three stone fireplaces that can accommodate a larger

pot:

“I usually have a lot of visitors and people living with me so [an improved]

stove may not be able to cook the desired quantity of food needed to enter-

tain my guests” (Male. Interview one, Site 2, 2015).

“I have stopped using my kerosene stove since my family size is now large

and I have gone back to my traditional three-stone fire since it can cook the

desired quantity of meals at once” (Female. Focus group one: Site 1, 2015).

Kerosene or Abacha stoves were also commonly used in these households to

cook smaller or quicker meals with one respondent reporting the use of “the

three-stone fire for preparing large quantities of foodwhile the kerosene stove

is for soup only” (Female. Focus group two: Site 1, 2015). Versatility and con-

trollability were also noted as desirable stove characteristics.

“I desire a stove that I will regulate the amount of heat to my cooking pot at

the same time accommodate large pot sizes” (Female village elder. Interview

one: Site 2).

Cultural preferences for the food cooked in particular ways were also men-

tioned as an influence on cooking system choice with respondents highlight-

ing the benefits of smoke for food preservation and taste:

“On the three-stone fire we use firewood as the main fuel for cooking and

sometimes for preserving meat, which is one of the underlying traditional


cooking practice. This is so because you cannot use another stove for meat

preservation, so when it comes to that … firewood and the three-stone fire is

utilized to give themeat an accentuated aroma that is highly appreciated. If

I had a gas stove, I would still use firewood to preserve my meat because it

is very important to the family” (Male. Interview one: Site 1 2015).

4.4.5. User preferences for rapid cooking

As illustrated in the quotes above, the combination of three stone fireplaces

and firewood were also favoured on the basis of perceptions that they cook

food quickly and save time. Typical responses from focus group participants

included claims that firewood “cooks faster than any other fuel”. Further dis-

cussions on this topic revealed that user perceptions about cooking speed

were linked to flexibility in the amount of fuel that could be used on them.

One respondent explained that:

“With my three-stone fire I put in as much firewood as I can to enable my

meals to cook faster” (Male. Focus group one: Site 1 2015).

Further discussions on this topic reflected a desire by male household mem-

bers for their meals to be prepared quickly when they returned home. This

encourages cooks to add more wood to their three-stone fires thereby increa-

sing the heat and helping to perpetuate the belief that these traditional stoves

cook faster than other devices.

4.4.6. Seasonal shifts in stove and fuel use

Nevertheless, the use of three-stone fireplaces tends to vary seasonally as they

are often located outside the home and it is difficult to relocate them indoors

during the rainy season. An additional problem is that households that col-

lect firewood free of cost are forced to cook with wet wood at this time of

year causing greater smoke emissions during cooking. Even firewood ven-

dors struggle to keep their wood dry during the rainy season. Many villagers

associated this with increased health problems and in addition to the male

respondent who reported taking his wife to hospital with eye pain, a female

respondent from site 3 recounted having spent a significant portion of her

savings when her child was hospitalized in the 2014 rainy season as a result

of smoke from wet firewood. During focus group discussions, the topic of in-

creased smoke from cooking with wet firewood was a common theme with


some respondents noting a desire to purchase cleaner stove/fuel combina-

tions:

“During rainy seasons, women experience difficulties with smoke in their

attempts to prepare meals as a result of wet firewood. This makes them de-

mand improved cookstoves” (Male. Focus group one: Site 3, 2015).

“In the rainy season, I usemy kerosene stove because firewood is usually wet

so it produces a lot of smoke. I don’t usemy three-stone fire during this time”

(Female. Focus group one: Site 1, 2015).

As a result of these health-related issues,many households reportedmaking a

shift from their three-stone fireplaces to alternative fuel/stove combinations

in the wet season.These examples highlight the drawbacks of tracking access

to higher tier cooking systems use when information is only collected on the

primary stove and fuel used as in these study villages, the answers may differ

between the rainy and dry seasons.

4.5. Incorporating end-user preferences into stove interventionsand SDG7 monitoring frameworks

Despite emphasis by the SDGs on promoting sustainability and inclusiveness,

efforts to formulate global targets and tracking frameworks inevitably run

the risk of making compromises in terms of their sensitivity to local context

(Sesan 2014, Satterthwaite 2015). At the same time, top-down initiatives em-

phasizing the cost and time benefits of fuel efficient cookstoves or the health

benefits of “clean” fuels and stoves have had limited success in promoting

their widespread uptake and sustained use by users of traditional biomass

stoves (Sesan 2014, Thurber et al. 2014). Even though access to finance can be

an important enabling factor within the ICS sector (GIZ 2013), contemporary

market-driven approaches have often failed to meet the needs and priorities

of lower income groups that have low demand for ICS (Kshirsagar and Ka-

lamkar 2014). As a result, the cost of purchasing an ICS - especially one that

requires regular fuel purchases -may prove too high for many potential users.

As data from Benue state illustrates, this is especially true when house-

holds face a range of competing financial priorities (food, education, health-

care, transport) andmay still obtain some of their biomass fuel free of cost. Al-

so, as the Benue respondents and Nottingham bake-off cooks illustrate, end-

user cooking preferences and priorities are spatially and culturally specific


and often differ widely from more technology-oriented systems for classify-

ing improved cooking systems (Troncoso et al. 2007, Sesan 2014, Ray et al.

2014). Indeed, some respondents reported abandoning technologically im-

proved systems in favour of lower rung/tier systems (or poorly maintained

higher rung/tier systems) that better met their needs. Echoing research by

Masera et al. (2000), many respondents from Benue and the bake/cook-off

events practiced stove and fuel “stacking” in response to fuel and stove ac-

cess/costs, the technical characteristics of different cookstoves (e.g. the type

of food being cooked, the size of pot they could accommodate, their cooking

speed and the amount of smoke created) and broader cultural preferences for

particular stove types.

Such trends indicate the need for cookstove initiatives to make greater

use of more participatory approaches that seek to understand end-user prio-

rities for different technologies and the factors that help to create demand

for these in different socio-economic, socio-cultural and geographical con-

texts. In particular, greater emphasis on “software” (as opposed to hardware

or technology-oriented) approaches and social marketing initiatives of the

type successfully used in the sanitation sector has potential to better under-

stand and target the priorities of different user groups. Indeed, discussions

about how to adapt such approaches that took place at a workshop organi-

zed by GACC, USAID, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia and the Swiss

Tropical and Public Health Institute in 2015 (GACC et al. 2015a) indicate in-

creasing interaction between the water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and

energy sectors.

In part, this reflects acknowledgement that increasing demand for clea-

ner fuels and improved stoves among low-income biomass-dependent groups

is likely to be particularly challenging; especially where biomass fuel can be

gathered free of cost and national energy policies overlook its importance as

a household energy source (Pachauri and Jiang 2008, Barnes et al. 2011, Ray

et al. 2017). But despite the recognition that - like poor sanitation - HAP-

related problems are unlikely to be ameliorated without a community-wide

response, the scope to transfer the types of community-led participatory in-

itiatives used successfully in the sanitation sector are seen as limited (GACC

et al. 2015b). This is because it is assumed that participatory approaches used

in CLTS will be difficult to replicate in the energy sector given that cooking

with “dirty” fuel lacks the sense of disgust widely associated with poor sa-

nitation. Another hindrance to non-solid fuel adoption is that knowledge of

HAP-related health problems is often low among low-income groups with low


levels of education. In Nigeria, this reflects the lack of health education pro-

grammes focused on HAP compared to those promoting improved sanitation

or malaria prevention (Akintan 2014) coupled with low levels of female inte-

gration (as change agents or ICS entrepreneurs) within the ICS value chain

(Sesan et al. 2019). Other barriers include the wider benefits associated with

smoke amongst communities that - in the absence of other methods of food

preservation - rely on it for curing fish or meat (Akintan 2014).

Nevertheless, as the bake/cook-off events and Benue fieldwork have

shown, participatory approaches can be designed to promote knowledge-

sharing about both end-user priorities and the technical characteristics of

ICS. They can also be used to encourage analyses of the wider impacts of

biomass fuel use with efforts made to encourage discussions of the time,

missed work/education opportunities and danger (e.g. risk of attack from

animals or humans) associated with gathering this and the groups most

affected by this. Resource mapping or matrix ranking exercises are useful for

highlighting wider environmental or cultural factors underlying availability

of and preferences for different cooking fuels or stoves whilst providing

insights on locally specific barriers or enablers for the adoption of different

fuels or technologies. Likewise, wealth ranking exercises can be useful for

identifying key indicators of social status that help to contextualize energy

choices in relation to other household priorities, aspirations and cultural

norms regarding cooking system use. Approaches focused more directly on

enhancing community-level understandings of HAP-related health issues,

meanwhile could help communities to make links with commonly experien-

ced symptoms. Drawing more directly on the triggering elements of CLTS,

it may even be possible to mobilize dissatisfaction and drudgery associated

with cleaning sooty cooking pots and living spaces to enhance awareness of

HAP-related respiratory problems and their community-level impacts.

With regard to the future monitoring of which areas and groups make

primary use of clean fuels and cooking technologies, the ambitious targets

associated with SDG7 clearly require multi-faceted tracking frameworks that

allow disaggregated data to be collected. GTF data collection activities will

therefore have to go well beyond the scope of existing DHS questionnaires

which only ask about the type of fuel households mainly use for cooking and

whether cooking takes place in the house, outdoors or in a separate building.

To provide useful insights on the extent to which economic factors hinder a

shift to non-solid fuel, data need to be collected on the cost, availability and

quantity of different fuels used. As case studies from Benue and elsewhere


illustrate (Ruiz-Mercato et al. 2011, Ruiz-Mercato and Masera 2015), data on

primary fuel and cookstove use provide only a partial picture.Widespread sto-

ve and fuel stacking along with seasonal or price-related shifts in stove/fuel

use (both up and down tiers/rungs) can have important implications for expo-

sure to health issues connected to HAP; the assessment of which need more

detailed information on stove use as well as the health benefits associated

with improved biomass stoves, noting that a recent randomized controlled

trial (Mortimer et al. 2016) found no evidence that an intervention comprising

cleaner burning biomass-fuelled cookstoves reduced the risk of pneumonia in

young children in rural Malawi.

In recognition of this and despite SDG 7.1.2’s emphasis on primary fuels

and cooking technologies, recent workshops designed to feed in to the de-

velopment of monitoring approaches for SDG7 highlight the need to capture

information on multiple stove use and variations in stove or fuel use by sea-

son (Ruiz-Mercado 2015). Although the GTF does seek to capture information

on “convenience” attributes associated with acquiring fuel and time taken to

prepare stoves for cooking, priorities identified by our bake/cook-off cooks

and Benue respondents for controllable, adaptable and quick-cooking stoves

that can cater for large family sizes are not monitored, despite their likely

influence on fuel and cookstove choices (Concern Universal 2016, Loo et al.

2016). Attributes linked to stove affordability, meanwhile, are only monito-

red for stove tiers 4 and 5, despite their importance in hindering a shift from

three stone fireplaces. Likewise, safety-related and indoor air quality attri-

butes depend on the availability of ISO data emissions data which is mostly

restricted to commercially-available stoves that are beyond the price range

of many low-income biomass users. As a result, questions need to be asked

about who benefits from testing and certification (Mukulu 2014, Karve 2014)

as it is likely to increase the cost to end-users whilst decreasing the margins

of small-scale producers that may be better able to adapt their stoves to end-

user requirements.

In pursuing their respective efforts to promote the adoption of clean cook-

stoves and fuels in 100 million households and “a data revolution for the ener-

gy sector” (IEA and World Bank 2015: 30), GACC and the GTF therefore need

to focus attention on understanding and seeking to address key barriers faced

by the biomass dependent poor. At the same time, national governments need

to pay greater attention to the importance of biomass for household energy

needs whilst creating enabling environments for ICS and clean fuel uptake.

The slow uptake of non-solid cooking fuel to date suggests that SDG7’s goal

http://thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(16)32507-7/fulltext


to “ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for

all” by 2030 urgently needs more effective user-focused approaches that seek

to understand the spatially specific and culturally-rooted nature of cooking

practices whilst seeking to facilitate locally acceptable and appropriate forms

of behavioural change. Solutions are starting to be sought from successful

approaches within the WASH sector (Graham, 2015; Rosenbaum, 2015) but

adaptations of CLTS-style community-led participatory approaches that play

on distaste for the dirt associated with non-“clean” biomass fuels could help

to promote change at the scale needed for a significant shift to the adoption

of modern cooking solution to occur.

4.6. References

Agarwal, B. (1986). Cold Hearths and Barren Slopes: Wood Fuel Crisis in the

Third World. London: Zed Books.

Akintan,O.B. (2014). Socio-cultural Perceptions of Indoor Air Pollution among

Rural Migrant Households in Ado Ekiti, Nigeria. Unpublished PhD disser-

tation. School of Geography. University of Nottingham.

Ali, O. J. and Victor, M. A. (2013). Assessment of Socio-economic Factors

Affecting Household Charcoal use in Makurdi Urban Area of Benue

State, Nigeria. Journal of Environmental Research and Management, 3(7),

0180–0188.

Arickal, B. and Khanna, A. (2015). ‘Principles and challenges in scaling up

CLTS: experiences from Madhya Pradesh, India’. Paper presented at the

38th WEDC International Conference, Loughborough University. July

2015.

Barnes, D., Openshaw, K., Smith, K. and van der Plas, R. (1994). What makes

people cook with improved biomass stoves? A comparative international

review of stove programmes. Energy Series Technical Paper 242. Wash-

ington, DC: The World Bank.

Barnes, D., Khandker, S.R. and Samad, H.A. (2011). Energy poverty in rural

Bangladesh. Energy Policy, 39, 894–904.

Beyene, A.D. and Koch, S.F. (2013). Clean fuel-saving technology adoption in

urban Ethiopia. Energy Economics, 36, 605–613.

Bielecki, C. and Wingenbach, G. (2014). Rethinking improved cookstove dif-

fusion programs: a case study of social perceptions and cooking choices

in rural Guatemala. Energy Policy, 66, 350–358.


Bruce, N., Perez-Padilla, R. and Albalak, R. (2000). Indoor air pollution in

developing countries: a major environmental and public health challenge.

Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 78, 1078–1092.

Bruce, N., Pope, D., Rehfuess, E., Balakrishnan, K., Adair-Rohani, H. and

Dora, C. (2015). WHO indoor air quality guidelines on household fuel

combustion: Strategy implications of new evidence on interventions and

exposure–risk functions. Atmospheric Environment, 106, 451–457.

Concern Universal. (2016). ‘Linking Energy with Social Welfare Programmes:

Integration of the Chitetezo Mbaula into the Social Cash Transfer Pro-

gramme’. Conference presentation given at the Malawi Cleaner Cooking

Camp, March 2016.

Dapo, B. and Emmanuel, O. (2013). Charcoal versus other domestic cooking

fuels: survey of factors influencing consumption in selected households

of Benue State, Nigeria. Journal of Sustainable Development in Africa, 15,

25–37.

Eckholm, E. (1975). The other energy crisis: Firewood. Washington, DC:

Worldwatch Institute.

Evans, B. (2005). Securing sanitation: The compelling case to address the

crisis. Stockholm: Stockholm International Water Institute with World

Health Organisation and Norwegian Agency for Development Coopera-

tion.

GACC. (nd). Clean Cookstoves and Fuels are Critical to the Success of the Post-

2015 Sustainable Development Agenda. http://cleancookstoves.org/bi-

nary-data/ATTACHMENT/file/000/000/192-1.pdf

GACC (2017a). ‘About’. http://cleancookstoves.org/about/.

GACC (2017b). IWA Tiers of Performance. http://cleancookstoves.org/

technology-and-fuels/standards/iwa-tiers-of-performance.html

GACC, USAID, UPCH and Swiss TPH. (2015). ‘Beyond distribution: Ensuring

and evaluating the adoption of clean cooking and its benefits’. Presenta-

tion from a workshop held in Lima, Peru, May 2015.

GIZ. (2013). GIZ HERA Coking Energy Compendium: A practical guide-

book for implemnters of cooking energy innovation. Bonn: Deutsche

Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH Poverty-

oriented basic energy services (HERA).

Graham, J.P. (2015) ‘Behavior Change Frameworks, Models and Techniques’.

Paper presented at the workshop ‘Beyond Distribution: Ensuring and

Evaluating the Adoption of Clean Cooking and Its Benefits’ Lima, Peru,

May 2015.

http://cleancookstoves.org/about/




Hanbar, R. and Karve, P. (2002). National programme on improved chulha of

the Government of India: An overview. Energy for Sustainable Develop-

ment, 6, 49–56

IEEE. (2014). Global Humanitarian Technology Conference. http://ieeex-

plore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=6970352

International Energy Agency (IEA) and World Bank. (2015). Sustainable en-

ergy for all 2015 - Progress toward sustainable energy. Washington, DC:

The World Bank.

Jenkins, M. and Sugden, S. (2006). Rethinking sanitation: Lessons and inno-

vation for sustainability and success in the new millennium. Human De-

velopment Report Office. Occasional Paper for the Human Development

Report 2006. London: UNDP and LSHTM.

Jenkins, M.W. and Scott, B. (2007). Behavioral indicators of household deci-

sion-making and demand for sanitation and potential gains from social

marketing in Ghana. Social Science and Medicine, 64(12), 2427–2442.

Jewitt, S. and Rahman, S. (2017). Energy poverty, institutional reform and

challenges of sustainable development: the case of India. Progress in De-

velopment Studies, 17(2), 173–185.

Kar, K. (2003). Subsidy or self-respect? Participatory total community sanita-

tion in Bangladesh. IDS Working Paper 184. Sussex: IDS.

Kar, K. and Pasteur, K. (2005). Subsidy or self-respect? Community led total

sanitation. An update on recent developments. IDS Working Paper 257.

Sussex: IDS.

Karve P. (2014). Helpline-expert response by Myra Mukulu and Priyadarshini

Karve. Boiling Point, 64, 25.

Kshirsagar, M.P. and Kalamkar, V.R. (2014). A comprehensive review on

biomass cookstoves and a systematic approach for modern cookstove de-

sign. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 30, 580–603.

Kohlin,G., Sills, E.O., Pattanayak, S.K., andWilfong, C. (2011). Energy, gender

and development: What are the linkages? Where is the evidence? Wash-

ington, DC: The World Bank.

Loo, J.D., Hyseni, L., Ouda, R., Kroske, S., Nyagol, R., Sadumah, I., Bashin,

M., Sage, M., Bruce, N., Pilishvili, T. and Stanistreet, D. (2016). User per-

spectives of characteristics of improved cookstoves from a field evaluation

in Western Kenya. International Journal of Environmental Research and

Public Health, 13, 167–180.

Lozier, M.J., Sircar, K., Christensen, B., Pillarisetti, A., Pennise, D., Bruce, N.,

Stanistreet, D., Naeher, L., Pilishvili, T., Loo Farrar, J., Sage, M., Nyagol,


R., Muoki, J., Wofchuck, T., and Yip, F. (2016). Use of temperature sensors

to determine exclusivity of improved stove use and associated household

air pollution reductions in Kenya. Environmental Science and Technology,

50(8), 4564–4571.

Lewis, J.J. and Pattanayak, S.K. (2012). Who adopts improved fuels and cook-

stoves? A systematic review. Environmental Health Perspectives, 120(5),

637–645.

Lim et al. (2012). A comparative risk assessment of burden of disease and

injury attributable to 67 risk factors and risk factor clusters in 21 regions,

1990–2010: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study

2010. The Lancet, 380(9858), 2224–2260.

Masera, O.R., Saatkamp, B.D. and Kammen, D.M. (2000). From linear fuel

switching to multiple cooking strategies: A critique and alternative to the

energy ladder model. World Development, 28(12), 2083–2103.

Mortimer, K., Ndamala, C.B., Naunje, A.W., Malava, J., Katundu, C., We-

ston, W., Havens, D., Daniel Pope, D., Bruce, N.G., Nyirenda, M., Wang,

D., Crampin, A., Grigg, J., Balmes, J. and Gordon, S.G. (2016). A cleaner

burning biomass-fuelled cookstove intervention to prevent pneumonia in

children under 5 years old in rural Malawi (the Cooking and Pneumo-

nia Study): a cluster randomised controlled trial. The Lancet, 389(10065),

167–175.

Mosse, D. (2008). Authority, Gender and Knowledge: Theoretical Reflections

on PRA. Development and Change, 25(3), 497–526.

Mukulu M. (2014). Helpline - Expert Response by Myra Mukulu and

Priyadarshini Karve. Boiling Point, 64, 24.

NBS/CBN/NCC. (2011). Annual socio-economic survey on Nigeria. Abuja,

Nigeria: Nigeria Bureau of Statistics-Central Bank of Nigeria-Nigerian

Communication Commission collaborative study.

Nagothu U.S. (2001). Fuelwood and fodder extraction and deforestation:

mainstream views in India discussed on the basis of data from the semi-

arid region of Rajasthan. Geoforum, 32, 319–332.

O’Reilly, K. and Louis, E. (2014). The toilet tripod: Understanding successful

sanitation in rural India. Health and Place, 29, 43–51.

Pachauri, S. and Jiang, L. (2008). The Household energy transition in India

and China. Energy Policy, 36, 4022–4035.

Peal, A.J., Evans, B.E., and van der Voorden, C. (2010). Hygiene and sanitation

software: An overview of approaches. Geneva: Water Supply and Sanita-

tion Collaborative Council.


Ray, C., Clifford, M. and Jewitt, S. (2014). The introduction and uptake of im-

proved cookstoves: Making sense of engineers, social scientists, barriers,

markets and participation. Boiling Point, 64, 2–5.

Ray, C., Sesan, T., Clifford, M. and Jewitt, S. (2017). From barriers to enablers:

Where next for improved cookstoves? Boiling Point, 69, 2–5.

Rehfuess, E.A., Puzzolo, E., Stanistreet, D., Pope, D. and Bruce, N.G. (2014).

Enablers and barriers to large-scale uptake of improved solid fuel stoves:

A systematic review. Environmental Health Perspectives, 122, 120–130.

Rosenbaum, J. (2015). ‘Behavior change approaches to facilitate clean cooking

and reduce HAP’. Paper presented at the workshop ‘Beyond Distribution:

Ensuring and Evaluating the Adoption of Clean Cooking and Its Benefits’,

Lima, Peru, May 2015.

Rosenthal, E. (2009). By degrees: Third-World stove soot is target in climate

fight. The New York Times, 15.04.2009.

Ruiz-Mercato, I. (2015). ‘Critical implications of fuel-device stacking for initial

diagnosis,monitoring and evaluation of stove programs’. Paper presented

at the workshop ‘Beyond Distribution: Ensuring and Evaluating the Adop-

tion of Clean Cooking and Its Benefits’, Lima, Peru, May 2015.

Ruiz-Mercado, I., Masera, O., Zamora, H. and Smith, K.R. (2011). Adoption

and sustained use of improved cookstoves. Energy Policy, 39, 7557–7566.

Ruiz-Mercado, I. and Masera, O. (2015). Patterns of stove use in the context of

fuel–device stacking: rationale and implications. Ecohealth, 12(1), 42–56.

Satterthwaite, D. (2015). Editorial: Is it possible to reach low-income urban

dwellers with good-quality sanitation? Environment and Urbanization,

27(1), 3–18.

Sesan, T. (2014). Global imperatives, local contingencies: An analysis of diver-

gent priorities and dominant perspectives in stove development from the

1970s to date. Progress in Development Studies, 14(1), 3–20.

Sesan, T., Clifford, M., Jewitt, S. and Ray, C. (2019). “We Learnt that Being

Together Would Give us a Voice”: Gender Perspectives on the East African

Improved-Cookstove Value Chain. Feminist Economics, 25(4), 240–266.

Simon, G.L. (2010). Mobilizing cookstoves for development: A dual adoption

framework analysis of collaborative technology innovations in western In-

dia. Environment and Planning A, 42, 2011–2030.

Smith, K. (1989). Dialectics of improved stoves. Economic and Political

Weekly, 11.03.1989.

Thurber, M.C., Phadke, H., Nagavarapu, S., Shrimali, G. and Zerriffi, H.

(2014). ‘Oorja’ in India: Assessing a large-scale commercial distribution


of advanced biomass stoves to households. Energy for Sustainable Devel-

opment, 19, 138–150.

Treiber, M. U., Grimsby, L. K. and Aune, J. B. (2015). Reducing energy poverty

through increasing choice of fuels and stoves in Kenya: Complementing

the multiple fuel model. Energy for Sustainable Development, 27, 54–62.

Troncoso, K., Castillo, A.,Masera, O.andMerino, L. (2007). Social perceptions

about a technological innovation for fuelwood cooking: Case study in rural

Mexico. Energy Policy, 35, 2799–2810.

UN (2016a) http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/energy/

UN (2016b) http://unstats.un.org/sdgs/indicators/database/

van der Kroon, B. Brouwer, R. and van Beukering, P.J. (2013). The energy lad-

der: Theoretical myth or empirical truth? Results from a meta-analysis.

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Review, 20, 504–513.

Venkataraman,C., Sagar, A.D.,Habib,G., Lam,N. and Smith,K.R. (2010).The

Indian national initiative for advanced Biomass cookstoves: The benefits

of clean combustion. Energy for Sustainable Development, 14, 63–72.

5. Fishing for food and food for fish

Negotiating long-term, sustainable food and water

resources in a transdisciplinary research project in

Burkina Faso

Gabriele Slezak, Jan Sendzimir, Raymond Ouedraogo, Paul Meulenbroek, Moumini

Savadogo, Colette Kabore, Adama Oueda, Patrice Toe, Henri Zerbo and Andreas

Melcher

5.1 Research context

In response to threats of chronic water scarcity and episodes of severe and

long-term drought, the government of Burkina Faso started to create a wide-

ly dispersed network of water storage facilities throughout the whole country

in 1950. As fisheries, these reservoirs have also become important new sources

of food (Petit et al. 2009, Venot et al. 2011). However, there exist several threats

to the services, e.g. fish and water quality, that these artificial aquatic sources

provide (CNID-B. 2010a&b,Mahé et al. 2005).The predominant ones are over-

fishing, intensive agricultural activities around the water resources and the

process of sedimentation. Within the framework of the Burkinabè national

development programme, attaining food security and providing drinking wa-

ter are central to the government’s national development policies and strate-

gies.Thus, to establish a sustainable management of natural and human-ma-

de aquatic systems, the responsible Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Fish

Resources in Burkina Faso started to develop an integrative water and fish

management strategy, which required methods and tools for the standardi-

zed assessment of the water quality and ecological status of rivers (MAHRH

2003, 2006).

The implementation and further development of this strategy requires

personnel trained in management and the science that underpins its tools

of data collection and analysis. In the framework of Austrian development

126 Gabriele Slezak, Jan Sendzimir et al.

cooperation, a senior manager of capture fisheries and aquaculture at the

former Ministry’s General Directorate for Fish Resources (GDFR) was super-

vised at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU) in Vi-

enna for his Doctoral research on fisheries and watermanagement in Burkina

Faso. The main aim of this interdisciplinary work was a general assessment

of fish stocks, catchments, anthropogenic impacts on water, local knowledge

and ecological awareness in fishing communities. At the policy level the pur-

pose was to outline key areas for future management policy in the fisheries

sector.The field research emphasized the importance of local fishing commu-

nities’ knowledge on fish and prospective fisheries in arid inland waters and

showed a serious lack of data on biodiversity and on river health (Ouedraogo

2010).

5.1.1. The establishment of a transdisciplinary research project

Further support for implementation of the water and fish management

strategy came from an international project on monitoring and mana-

ging sustainable fisheries and water bodies in Burkina Faso1, SUSFISH -

Sustainable Management of Water and Fish Resources in Burkina Faso. This

project recognized the history of failure of development projects based only

on technical and/ or scientific advances. In Burkina Faso examples of aban-

doned equipment and infrastructure (fishponds, refrigerators, fish-weighing

scales, fish shops) to support the modernization of fisheries testify to this.

Aside from a few examples of successful organization of local management

capacity, for the most part, there are significant gaps between national and

lower levels of governance in Burkina Faso. Briefly, a governance system that

effectively functions from the central, national level out to the regional and

local levels has yet to be established (Melcher et al. 2018). Often the link bet-

ween laws and actual practices in the monitoring of fisheries is not based on

lived practical experience. One major challenge in fact seems to be adapting

legislation to everyday practice. But traditional institutions play a vital role

in reaffirming the identity of communities reliant on aquatic ecosystems

and thereby broadly influence water and fish management. However, as

our research indicates, the current governance structure does not link and

harmonize these co-created rules with national laws (Sanon et al. 2015).

1 SUSFISH - SustainableManagement ofWater and FishResources inBurkina Faso (2011-

2014) http://susfish.boku.ac.at/

Fishing for food and food for fish 127

This governance gap between law and practice could prove to be a key bar-

rier to realizing the potential for fisheries to become sustainable in Burkina

Faso. The principle idea was, to establish a solid basis of useful knowledge

in the social as well as the natural sciences in order to assess the extent and

impact of this gap. Initiatives to establish this knowledge base were jointly

founded by natural scientists in academia as well as by government officials

so as to explore the possibility of analyzing and then managing fisheries ba-

sed on biophysical scientific evidence. A transdisciplinary and participative

approach was selected in order to integrate multiple perspectives of acade-

mic, policy and local practice. But nevertheless, the whole project was desi-

gned within the framework of development cooperation and therefore the

research agenda aimed to contribute scientific knowledge to the social, eco-

nomic and political barriers and bridges to sustainable fisheries. The overall

objective was to strengthen the institutional capacities of the Burkinabè part-

ners in higher education, research and management. A network of natural

and social scientists as well as stakeholders worked together for three years

in joint fieldwork activities, workshops and policy formulation for sustainab-

le management and monitoring strategies suitable to the environmental and

political context of Burkina Faso.

5.1.2. Integrating practices of participatory research

Interdisciplinary work can reveal important cross-sectoral activities, interre-

lated power relations and hindering factors that play key roles in the value

chain of the resource fish in Burkina Faso. However, it was necessary to un-

derstand more about the complex interconnectivities and relations of socio-

political activities in the natural resources management sector. In addition,

there was a need to integrate applied participatory research methods. Taking

into account the lessons learned from the SUSFISH Consortium 2015, the

project aimed to involve local actors as well as actors on the policy level in the

research process. Together, they would work on questions of water manage-

ment and on assessment methods based on fish in order to contribute to the

analysis of processes. The inputs of local politicians and of decision makers

both in the fishing communities and on a national scale were integrated in

the data collection. Here, relevant data on fish, the environment and on pres-

sures were gathered. Also an analysis of the relationship between different

kinds of anthropogenic pressures, including overfishing, intensive agricultu-

ral activities around the water resources, pollution by fertilizers,manures and


pesticides, and the dynamics in fish assemblages and in water quality were

integrated in the data collection process.The concept of participatory and in-

terdisciplinary research was manifold and focused on the following tools for

cooperation:

• Joint data collection in several field trips with five traditional fishermen,

doing applied research, participating in the sampling of fish, macro-in-

vertebrates and environmental parameters

• Joint laboratory work, i.e. identification of fish and macro-invertebrates,

and data analyses

• Group discussions and interviews with fishermen and women processors

(fishmongers) during their regular assemblies of more than 600 sampling

sites (75 waterbodies)

• Interviews with local fishermen on their ecological knowledge

• Individual and group interviews with representatives of a) the central gov-

ernment (general administration) and b) the local communities (locally

elected people), the technical staff of rural development, the fisheries and

water stakeholders in six of the thirteen administrative regions of the

country

• Workshops on gender issues with decision makers in fisheries and

women’s organisations on a local level in all sampling areas

• Workshops and group discussions with researchers and policy makers for

systematization/synthesis of results

• Two workshops with the research team for the integration of a gender

sensitive approach to the research agenda. In smaller workshops the re-

search focus was further expanded to look for interactions both within

and between biophysical and non-biophysical disciplines.

• Public conferences with practitioners, decision makers and scientists.

During the joint research process the overall aim was to establish a

transdisciplinary knowledge basis with inputs from the natural and

social sciences as well as from a diversity of non-academic experts both

within and beyond Burkina Faso, such as fishmongers, fishermen, NGO

representatives, business people. Open fora such as public conferences

provided opportunities to evaluate and disseminate project results.

Based on research in several disciplines in the biophysical, social, economic

and political areas, including the expertise of decision makers, practitioners

and scientists, this project was designed as a transdisciplinary project with


several partner organizations and a large number of individuals. It was im-

plemented by a consortium of eight organisations with expertise in the areas

of research, education and development (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Sustainable Management of Water and Fish Resources in Burkina Faso

(SUSFISH) project design and involved partners

The design did not consider a direct interlink between the ecosystems and society.

Therefore, the method of systems analysis was introduced to the core team as a tool

for integrating data resulting from more than 20 studies in various disciplines.


5.1.3. Project results

The project’s ecological and biophysical research results highlighted an im-

portant diversity of fish and macro invertebrates all over the country. More

than 75 fish species and 105 taxa of macro invertebrates were identified and

their spatial distribution and habitat characteristics were described. This di-

verse fauna occupies a wide range of habitat types.Habitats are always subject

to human impact, but physico-chemical parameters are in accordance with

tropical areas standards. Findings gave deeper insight into reactions of aqua-

tic species to human pressures, specifically ranking species according to their

tolerance to such pressures.The presence or absence of intolerant species can

be key indicators of aquatic ecosystems under pressure and thus support eco-

system management at the landscape level.

At local level, fishing practices in Burkina Faso are very heterogeneous and

depend on the status of water resources. Fishing communities relay mainly

on rain-fed agriculture, irrigated gardening and cattle breeding as economic

activities, and fishing as an additional source of income, so fishing is mostly

a part-time job for farmers and herdsmen. Case studies revealed significant

historical changes in colonial times when access to fish changed allowing for-

eign professional fishermen to exploit fisheries at a larger scale. But there still

exist institutions of local fisheries management such as guidance by spiritu-

al leaders, rituals such as collective fishing or closing times, as case studies

revealed (Ouedraogo 2010, Sanon 2015). National fisheries government varies

largely according to the status of water bodies. By law there are two kinds

of status of fisheries based on management type. The PHIE are “nationally

important” reservoirs, thus management is organized at a professional level

and most of the fishermen involved are professionals, whereas concessions

are more “subsistence-level” fishing for local markets. But the large majority

of reservoirs in Burkina Faso are not included in these categories, do not have

a legal status and the state is barely present to monitor and sanction illegal

practices. In our field data, learning fishing methods over generations con-

textualized in the environmental challenges was found only in a few cases.

Fishing techniques include cast nets, gill nets, long lines and traps. Even de-

trimental and prohibited methods like small mesh size and beach seines are

very commonly used.

On the governmental level, findings indicate how development projec-

ts failed due to the limited ecological awareness of local stakeholders and

a lack of training for local fishermen regarding fish stock issues. This rai-


ses the question of the availability of useful and reliable information, which

is essential to proper decision-making for managing water and fish resour-

ces. Local communities as end-users need to have quick access to all available

data on fisheries and water resources in Burkina Faso. However, little atten-

tion is paid to the way this information was communicated, what the local

knowledge was like and therefore also the participation of different kinds of

stakeholders in the process of policy formulation remained unclear. At local

level the fisheries department does not cooperate with local communities in

managing water and fish resources and on a formal level there is a lack of

natural science fisheries experts in all of the 13 administrative regions.The le-

gislation governing fisheries is well developed but is not translated into local

languages and is thus not accessible for fishermen and fish processors. The-

re is a serious need for a platform that involves all stakeholders at all levels

(micro, meso and macro) to discuss such governance issues and meaningfully

influence policy formulation and implementation. Studies from Zambia gave

important insights how this process of developing regulations, that are craf-

ted bottom-up, could provide by-laws that are addressing concerns and needs

of local interest groups (Haller et al. 2016, Haller et al. 2018). This need is evi-

dent where official projects are monitored without the participation of direct

stakeholders, and the main stakeholders working on the management level

of their associations are not trained. A higher bargaining power could be sta-

ted at the mid-level of associations where fishermen are better organized and

informed and have a higher income compared to self-employed fishermen.

The SUSFISH project’s surveys in biophysics demonstrated that parame-

ters such as fish size, abundance and diversity in Burkina Faso are related to

the quality of fisheries and habitat management (Melcher et al. 2012, Stranzl

2014, Kaboré et al. 2016a, Kaboré 2016, Mano 2016). By using biological in-

dicators, it became possible to distinguish impacted and non-impacted areas

and to develop a multimeric index approach to assess the ecological quality of

running water bodies in Burkina Faso. Thus, the project provided a rich data

basis for monitoring the presence and impacts of pressures and developed

technical tools such as software analysis and hardware for fish monitoring -

including training in the use of those tools standardized scientific monito-

ring and assessment of the ecological quality status (e.g. electro fishing, Ben-

tho Macro Invertebrates sample protocols, rapid field assessment protocol),

applied to the environmental context in Burkina Faso.

Gender relevant research activities revealed that actors involved in fishe-

ries are organized at several different levels of the units of production and


by processing families. Men fish in groups while women are in charge of the

processing. Another level of organization involves participation in provincial

unions and the National Fishermen’s Union of Burkina Faso. In this context,

women, who - in most cases - do not fish on their own, control the area of

processing. They play an important role in the exploitation of water and fish

resources, because they allow not only the conservation of water resources,

but also the survival and the community’s reliability on fishing by developing

strategies for small-scale distribution, transport and financing. For instan-

ce, women act as donors of loans for the fishermen in periods of financial

distress.2 But this predominance of women in the fish-processing domain

does not translate into significant higher bargaining power regarding wo-

men’s involvement in decision-making processes in administrative and legal

areas of the fisheries management. Thus, the development of institutions for

sustainable use of the fisheries should consider women as key stakeholders

in the economics of fishery businesses.

5.1.4 Issues with the participatory approach

As previously mentioned, the long history of technically-focused natural sci-

ence projects in fisheries that failed for social, economic and/or political rea-

sons, prompted a transdisciplinary approach.This includes indigenous ecolo-

gical knowledge and integrates biophysical as well as non-biophysical factors

that might help (or hinder) the sustainability of fisheries in Burkina Faso (Sal-

ly et al. 2011, see also Haller andMerten 2008, 2018, Chabwela and Haller 2010

for fisheries in Zambia). Haller et al. (2016) emphasize that for a sustainable

bottom-up institution building approach, local power asymmetries need to be

understood as well as local knowledge needs to be incorporated (see also Ber-

kes 1999 on this issue of scientific and local ecological knowledge and their

differences and similarities). Thus, a participatory approach accesses mul-

tiple, non-academic perspectives that are vital to transdisciplinary research

(Thompson Klein 2004, Haller et al. 2016).

In SUSFISH this became evident, since the nature of problems to be ad-

dressed were not per se in the field of natural science but rather in the social,

2 Our studies revealed that 82% of fishermen have already contracted loans with which

to purchase fishing equipment and fishing licenses. In 88% of cases, the loans granted

by women are repaid in kind (fish) from the production.


political and institutional context and thus needed to be negotiated coopera-

tively by experts from both science and (political) practice.The project sustai-

ned participatory approaches by scientific experts and policy makers colla-

borating in workshops with local partners as local experts to develop joint

strategies to communicate the results of the scientific cooperation to local

communities. This involvement of local partners as experts to share and ap-

ply their knowledge was central towards a process of shared research. This,

of course, is intimately linked to language, so as to contextualize the findings

of the natural science research and make it more accessible and, as a conse-

quence,more applicable in local fishing communities around Burkina Faso. In

the tradition of internationally oriented, policy-relevant science, the project

sustained three levels of knowledge sharing and learning activities: 1) joint

fieldwork, 2) policy formulation and strategic sector development activities

for fisheries and water, and 3) synthesis of research results and definition of

lessons learned including important remaining questions. But important to

note, within this framework there was no space reserved for the direct in-

volvement of local groups to deal with the problem and to start a joint bot-

tom-up process, such as concerns-oriented drafting of by-laws described for

Zambia in Haller and Merten (2018) for instance. Additionally, local actors

in the various fishing communities were not a homogeneous group. Besides

the diversity of socio-historical contexts, their knowledge is linked not only

to French, but to local languages such as Jula and Moore as well, which were

very important linguistic resources for interaction and joint discussions.

5.1.5. Fieldwork - practice and training

In order to elicit and share knowledge, interactions during fieldwork activi-

ties between scientists, policymakers, local decisionmakers and practitioners

in the fishing sector were continuously encouraged. They started in the be-

ginning of the project and were continued during the whole time and have

been mainly conducted by a large group of students participating in the re-

search. Developing an innovative and likewise adaptive assessment of the in-

tegrity and long-term sustainability of water quality and fisheries in Burkina

Faso required intensive fieldwork for sampling and data collection.Within the

project’s framework of capacity building in higher education3, a large number

3 APPEAR is a programme of the Austrian Development Cooperation (ADC) to support

higher education and research for development on an academic institutional level in


of Burkinabè and Austrian students carried out most of the data collection.

During their participation in several field trips for joint collection of data, stu-

dents learned to work in teams together with junior and senior researchers

in different study areas all over the country. Subsequently they continued the

work independently. These joint excursions and field trips were designed, or-

ganized and implemented particularly with the participation of practitioners.

For instance, the 21 study areas were selected by the students’ supervising

scientists in collaboration with government officials. Besides biophysical and

ecological criteria it was important to take into account the local management

practices influencing the condition of water bodies and fish stock. Therefore,

students conducting their field research were assisted additionally by super-

vising staff, which included traditional local fishermen, local government of-

ficials of both the republican and traditional systems and representatives of

women’s associations. This assistance by local experts happened either while

participating in the sampling of fish,macro-invertebrates and environmental

parameters, or during ethnographic fieldwork such as participant observati-

on, interviewing and group discussions. Local experts were selected on the

basis of professional experience (e.g. fishing techniques, years of training),

access to local and state institutions, ecological knowledge and personal avai-

lability for the series of field trips.The local fishermenmore and more shaped

the fieldwork practice. Although every student followed her or his individu-

al research focus, the project staff organized joint workshops on fieldwork

methodology (within their disciplines as well as interdisciplinary).

In terms of training in ecological and biodiversity approaches, scholars

at various levels of their academic career (BA, MA and PhD) were trained in

seminars and in the field to undertake surveys of fish and benthic macro-in-

vertebrates. Nine study areas all over the country were visited together during

four sampling campaigns. Joint activities involved students in developing and

adopting standardized field collection techniques, species identification and

enumeration methods, as well as in analyses using aggregated biological at-

tributes or quantification of key species. For instance, in the beginning it was

necessary to develop a joint fishing technique, which provided a standardized

the ADC’s southern priority countries and key regions and in three priority countries

of the South Caucasus and Black Sea Region. It provides funding for academic part-

nerships between higher education and research institutions in the addressed coun-

tries and Austria. https://appear.at/en/

https://appear.at/en/


method for sampling in the heterogeneous landscape of Burkina Faso’s wa-

ter bodies. The best way how to negotiate and ultimately, agree was a joint

training of the whole group.The outcome was a threefold method, which was

oriented towards local experience in fishing: every site (segment) was sam-

pled by electrofishing, traditional fishing methods (cast and gill nets, active

and passive fishing) and fishing for benthos. Even the frequency and extent

of sampling in the individual areas had to be negotiated, as it was not the

goal to fish as much as possible, but to get a random result. It was important

to use the appropriate fishing method for the investigated water bodies to

get meaningful and consistent results on diversity and abundances. But this

approach was challenging also in terms of communication: after one month

of working together the students started to realize that communication was

crucial to this process and that knowledge not only culturally evolved but ex-

ists as knowledge-practice-beliefs complexes embedded in their institutional

contexts. It was an important experience for them to learn about alternative

knowledge and perspectives based on own locally developed practices of re-

source use (Berkes 1999, Haller et al. 2018). Translation should not stick to a

word-by-word transfer, but rather to translate concepts such as for instance

that of understanding biodiversity.This is well illustrated in the following ex-

ample from a cast net (Figure 2) event described in the research diary section

below by Paul Meulenbroek on 12.12.2012 in the catchment of Nazinga:

“During our fieldwork, electrofishing and cast net fishing were approxi-

mately conducted the same time frame and both methods captured around

9,000 specimen, 18 species were only caught with electrofishing and 11

exclusively with cast net. For the latter experienced fishermen are needed to

perform effective fishing. Themost impressive demonstration of the profes-

sional fisherman Noufou Bonkoungou’s fishing experience was performed

in the protected area of Nazinga. First, he walked along the river for about

10 minutes, suddenly he stopped to wait without any motions for another 5

minutes and starred at the water. Unexpectedly he started to run and throw

his cast net. He could catch more than 700 specimens with one throw. In

comparison, it took the students 3 hours to get one single fish. It was a very

important experience for students, how to evaluate local knowledge, which

is often implicit and not considered by the scientific experts sufficiently as

data for their analysis.”

Furthermore, the whole group worked with standardized field protocols

drawn from European and international research experience. Because of


Figure 2: Electrofishing and cast net fishing. Picture: Paul Meulen-

broek

fishermen’s input, the participants realized during the sampling phase that

they needed to change the standardized tool by integrating new parameters

such as abiotic factors (e.g. extensive farming practice) in order to adapt fish

and invertebrate habitat assessment protocols to the conditions in Burkina

Faso. It was important to take into accountmany country specific factors such

as intermittent rivers, mainly man-made waterbodies or a country specific

velocity of rivers. A specific challenge for the team was the development of

a classification tool for temporary streams, as they dry out during the hot


season. Due to the participation of local fishermen, the selection process of

segments of reservoirs for sampling considered local ecological knowledge.

This ongoing process of recognition of “non-scientific” knowledge systems

lasted for several months and integrated the inputs of local experts such as

the fishermen, local authorities of the traditional government and represen-

tatives of fishermen’s associations, who all contributed their experience on

seasonality of the water body and fish migration practices. It created a zone

of learning and understanding on both sides, among the scientists and the

local actors. Comparable to other areas a solid basis of trust was created,

which invited on local level to participate, share and co-create in research

activities (Haller et al. 2016: 82).

Here it is important to note that this kind of interaction was only possible

because members of the scientific team could make local knowledge accessi-

ble through linguistic translation. Because of their linguistic background and

their academic education, they were able to interpret this local knowledge

into scientific parameters understandable to the whole team.

Local knowledge was better integrated with international science by per-

forming different stages of data collection, processing and analysis jointly

in the field. Fieldwork was embedded in joint activities to prepare specimens

and process data after collection, such as laboratory work to identify and con-

trol quality for fish and benthic-invertebrates taxonomy. As local fishermen

were also directly involved in these accompanying measures, the description

and classification of fish species happened in situ at the sampling sites. Activi-

ties on sites were documented in field protocols and diaries in order to link

results to workshops on the utilization of Red List criteria and categories4.

Finally, the local knowledge on how to interpret features and characteristics

of fish contributed significantly to the evaluation of the conservation status

of fish species at national level. These workshops did not take place in the

field but in a scientific environment framed by academic expertise. It would

have been an important contribution to the evaluation process if we had con-

sidered local fishermen’s expertise also at this level of research activities. Our

internalized division between science and local ecological knowledge did not

4 An official list of fish species and invertebrates and a national database of metainfor-

mation on existing biophysical characteristics of fisheries, the diversity and conserva-

tion status of fish species and benthic invertebrates, the pressures on fish populations

and methods of water assessment based on fish and macro invertebrates was develo-

ped during project time.


allow the imagination of the importance of such a contribution. But by re-

flecting this collaborative process at a later stage, we addressed the excluding

effect of drawing on our existing constructions of the field, informant and

science (see Foucault 1981).

Second, it clearly showed the limits of imagination of transdisciplinary

fieldwork. The trips were planned along disciplinary boundaries. The focus

was on ecological and biological data collection and therefore students trained

in participant observation and interviewing techniques were not involved. All

these important reciprocal processes of knowledge co-creation should have

been elicited and processed with socio-anthropological methods of qualitati-

ve research for a better understanding of specific institutions governing the

use of fisheries, such as the notion of spiritual ownership of water bodies or

rules and regulations originating from pre-colonial times (see also Haller and

Merten 2010).

In terms of training in socio-political approaches, students worked on is-

sues of fisheries management, governance, society and local fishing as well

as fish processing practices within the larger framework of the institutional

cooperation of several university departments and the national government.

Joint training workshops on research practice exposed them in two stages to

transdisciplinary and explorative approaches in social, economic and political

science: first, by developing a set of quantitative and qualitative data collec-

tion methods, and second, by subsequently coordinating and adjusting data

analysis to the team’s focal research interests.

Experts from various academic and political organizations (project team

members, Work Package leaders or supervisors) provided flexible supervisi-

on in accordance with the particular implications and dynamics of the app-

lied participatory approach. Gender expertise, for example, was integrated in

the research agenda by workshops for junior and senior scientists. This in-

cluded training for students on gender sensitive field collection techniques,

such as methods for identifying factors for gender imbalances, implementa-

tion of participatory and awareness raising strategies in fieldwork as well as

on focusing on gender issues in data analyses. The expert’s long-term practi-

cal experience working with women’s organizations provided methodological

knowledge of how to include women into the research process although they

are not represented by associations or in decision-making. In addition to the-

se workshops, during their research she continuously reviewed their written

materials e.g. questionnaires, results and reports, which she shared as part

of group discussions in joint meetings. This enhanced the students’ critical


self-reflection of their own research practice and of the scientific paradigm

they were working in. They became more sensitive for power relations and

questions of equality in the research process and reflected their own role as

researchers. They had to think about their expectations in the collaboration

with local actors. As a result, the field studies provided by these students fea-

ture an outstanding interest on gender issues in fisheries, nutrition, health

and natural resource management, which contributed generally to applied

gender research in Burkina Faso.

To conclude with an example, it was an important contribution of the go-

vernment’s gender expert to share her knowledge on key issues on socio-eco-

nomic aspects in the water and fisheries management with the students. As a

teammember she was able to bring in her experience and thus improve rese-

arch findings. Her contribution included taking into account gender sensitive

factors for the composition of focus groups or issues of female representati-

on on family and community level; a critical revision of questionnaires and

data in terms of economic responsibilities of women in fishing communities;

considering the neglect of female actors in the fisheries on policy level.

Gender sensitive studies revealed that female actors play an important

economic role in the exploitation of water resources, because they support

not only the conservation of water resources, but also the community’s sur-

vival and their reliance on fishing. In addition to carrying out their activities,

women transformed themselves into donors of loans to the fishermen, who

in fact monopolize the commercial fish trade. As a consequence, women are

economically important stakeholders in fisheries, but structurally excluded

from decision-making processes. Findings showed that women’s involvement

in fisheries helps improve both diet quality and, especially, households’ food

security during the year.

5.1.6. Involvement of policy makers - key questions of management

Second, participation happened at local5 and regional levels during the pro-

cess of policy formulation for fisheries and water management in the context

of workshops and meetings with representatives of water authorities, fisher-

men’s associations and local governments.Three experts of the GDFR (Minis-

5 At local level, officials involved in the implementation of national policies and strate-

gies for fisheries management in Banfora, Tiéfora, Cascades and Moussodougou have

been included.


try of Animal andWater ResourcesManagement),whowere part of the project

team, guided this process, which should lead to a new strategic orientation

of the Burkinabè fisheries sector.

In these workshops and meetings, it was their aim to link ongoing rese-

arch findings to the level of government’s interaction with local and regional

officials, technicians and representatives, who were in charge of training local

fishing communities. In a reciprocal process, the local and regional perspec-

tives should help to improve government policy. The interactions were there-

fore not limited to data collection. In field surveys the constant contact with

the various actors sometimes questioned the researchmethods and experien-

ces and required adjustments. For example, at the beginning of the study we

did not include the local agricultural officers. This group has been suggested

by the manager of the fisheries and was later integrated. Fishermen and fi-

shmongers mainly organized the meetings of focus groups. They mobilized

themselves and determined the appropriate period of time to bring the group

together.

To illustrate how this interaction happened, we refer again to gender is-

sues in the fisheries and water management policy as an example. In 2007,

the General Directorate for Fish Resources of the Ministry of Animal and Fish

Resources in Burkina Faso assigned a water engineer and gender expert to as-

sess female representation and gender imbalances in the fisheries and water

sector. Her work continued in the framework of the SUSFISH project focu-

sing on the set up of a process of policy formulation. At the end of the project,

a final draft of a „Stratégie d’intégration du genre à la politique de dévelop-

pement et de gestion durable dela pêche au Burkina Faso“ was adopted by the

Ministry.

First of all, this participatory approach required the facilitation of com-

munication within the multinational team of researchers and practitioners.

Secondly, in order to reflect on the input of local experts regarding fish stock,

natural diversity and fishing her team members had to develop a joint stra-

tegy not only to communicate the results of the scientific cooperation to local

people, but also to involve them as experts in the setting. To lower the risk that

her team acted in ways that are alien and incomprehensible to local people’s

life worlds, unmediated interactions with local actors were organized by local

technicians in local languages. In the framework of government’s campaigns

and technical training workshops all over the country data collection were

organized with practitioners such as technicians in the fisheries, aquacultu-

re and in water management. Their knowledge should influence the findings


of the natural sciences research. The ministerial expert monitored these in-

teractions in separate trainings and evaluation meetings based on a gender

sensitive approach. She helped them to take into account the main barriers

for women to access local resources, written information or legal rights. A

further topic was how to work interactively with women in male-dominated

surroundings and that group composition for instance can influence if wo-

menwill take the opportunity to speak for themselves. It was amajor objective

to achieve a deeper understanding of complex underlying processes and cor-

relations in socioeconomic and “socio-ecologic” systems through this specific

involvement of local experts of the fisheries and water management policy.

5.1.7. Synthesis of research results

During its final year the project tested ways on how to integrate scientific re-

search in policymaking and broaden the knowledge base by incorporating the

perspectives of people acting in different sectors at different levels of society,

from local to regional to national.This meant expanding the scope of research

and policy discussion beyond interdisciplinarity (social scientists, biologists,

fish ecologists and nutritionists) to include inputs from outside academia:

managers (fisheries planners, policy makers) and practitioners (fishermen,

fishmongers, traders) at the local and regional level. The main aim was a syn-

thesis of all findings for final reporting and to develop key research questions

for further projects. As a follow-up it was planned to formulate policy briefs

for the government of Burkina Faso.

For this part of the research process, a member of the consortium pro-

vided expertise in innovative methods of systems analysis. The method was

introduced to the core team as a tool for integrating data resulting frommore

than 20 studies in various disciplines. In two series of workshops in Novem-

ber 2013 and July 2014, the process assembled a diverse focus group consisting

of academics and government members, who collaborated in the design and

running of an experiment in scenario development (Sendzimir et al. 2011,

Ouedraogo et al. 2014). Tools such as scenario development and system ana-

lysis were applied in workshops and modeling sessions. Time constraints of-

ten deny policy makers and stakeholders extended opportunities to explore

the future. Therefore, the challenge for all members was to do so in a very

short time period. This was done by defining the variables and their relati-

onships that may influence future development pathways for fisheries in Bur-

kina Faso. This exercise developed scenarios as ways for experts and partners


to examine the dynamic implications of the facts and questions generated

by the project. Such exercises allowed participants for the first time to bring

together, discuss and reconsider their assumptions and questions in light of

the dynamics that they anticipated. It further allowed an elaboration of what

particular variables and parameters ought to be measured in order to better

understand how the socio-political and ecological system is changing. In or-

der to understand the phenomenon of water and fish resource management

in Burkina Faso holistically, we developed, changed, and jointly adapted our

concept in an open-ended process. In terms of research practice, this was very

challenging to organisation, communication, and integration of heterogene-

ous types of knowledge, as explained in the following.

Challenge of a complex process: The process of conceptual mapping exer-

cises consists of several steps. It starts with the telling of a story as well as

the formulation of hypotheses and key questions and continues with the ran-

king of the influencing parameters. In our workshops the joint examination

of possible structures of relations that might underlie the dynamics opened

up space for debates. These efforts were intentional and helped us to identify

how some partners imagine concepts or patterns of relations and how they

would propose to analyze them in the future. But it became evident that it

is a challenge to examine phenomena through the broader lenses of inter-

and transdisciplinarity. Frequently we found that it requires patience, trust

and encouragement to embrace the complexity of problems. This means re-

sisting the historical dependence on explaining problems by means of single,

key variables and sustaining our mutual examination of the dimensions of

that complexity, arriving at more nuanced understanding of multiple causa-

tion.We learned to deal with the complexity of differences but also to consider

their scope of negotiation (Bhabha 2000).The process of ranking parameters,

for instance, follows a linear structure that requires defining which parameter

comes first and therefore has more analytical weight than another.

Challenge of disciplinary boundaries and epistemology: At the beginning of

the project the differences that distinguish how each discipline focuses its re-

search were evident to team members. During the first half of the project,

these distinctions defined how we worked and were followed more or less

separately. On a technical level, the project design included reporting and ex-

change of information for monitoring and evaluation but did not integrate

a deeper understanding and learning process transdisciplinarily in all rese-

arch activities.This latter reflexive process was limited to some few workshop

and fieldwork contexts (Figure 3), as mentioned above, where room for dialo-


Figure 3: Workshop on systems analysis in Ouagadougou, June 2014

Thinking and reflecting in a group of up to 20 participants means to open up the floor

to many, often diverging, interpretations of the specific parameters. Therefore, it was

sometimes difficult for us to find a compromise for defining parameters. However, on

the other hand this participatory method enhanced our ability to reflect on how we

mutually collaborate to share and combine our understanding and follow correlations

to define future research and policy.

gue and exchange was provided selectively.The final group discussions on our

project results issuing from natural and social sciences views as well as from a

diversity of non-academic sources were intensive and not always smooth be-

cause of disruptions, rejections, misunderstandings, and ideologically loaded

conflicts. However, overall, we experienced ourselves as part of a transdisci-

plinary team with complementary bodies of knowledge and ways of knowing,

- lay, local, and indigenous expertise full of contradictions, which do not lead

to simplification.

Challenge of flow of knowledge and information: Our project’s goal was to

explore ideas that are risky because their implications lie so far into the fu-

ture that prediction becomes impossible. To this end the process assembled

a focus group comprising a diversity of academics and government members

with the purpose to apply forecasting and back-casting techniques (Kok et al.


2011), wherein we developed various scenarios in different development ex-

ercises. These included extended discussions and controversial negotiations

on definitions of sustainability, governance, subsistence and gender concepts

between the involved experts (see Bourdieu 1996). The exercises provided a

problem-oriented framework that invited creative ways of thinking. Conse-

quently, it enabled a team of experts to enhance their own understanding of

how they saw problems and contexts as well as how other stakeholders did. In

this way the negotiation process brought even more complexity to light in a

way useful to the network working on these problems. By sharing knowledge

and understanding as a group we developed a collaborative knowledge base

that had not been established yet.

For practical reasons this collaborative process did not involve all of the

other actors engaged at earlier stages of the research. Even the group of stu-

dents, who played a significant role in data collection and processing, were

not included in the team. As outlined above, types of knowledge were elicited

and negotiated at various steps of the research process. It would have been

very important for the core team to ensure that it could become integrated in

this last step of comprehensive synthesis, as we dealt with a very heteroge-

neous group of participants and various forms of knowledge. In fact, we, as

members of the core team, became important bearers of knowledge, but were

not fully aware of its importance and struggled to bring together the perspec-

tives of diverse stakeholders, especially policy makers, local authorities and

practitioners. Referring to the project’s approach, the knowledge integrating

process in its complexity was clearly underestimated. The various scenarios

developed did identify many potential barriers to making fisheries sustainab-

le, such as de facto open-access to fisheries, increasing pressure through agri-

culture and mining practices, disruption of fish migration by dams, dysfunc-

tional government institutions because of lack of state financial support for

monitoring and sanctioning, the policy focus on a few large reservoirs of „na-

tional economic interest“ (Melcher et al. 2018: 530), and very heterogeneous

local communities in terms of internal power distribution, few interaction in

dealing with outside actors and little bargaining power as well as top-down

developed law and practices to monitor fisheries.

However, it would have been a significant addition to the project to rigo-

rously identify how to exploit opportunities and circumvent challenges over

the next 20 years in order to successfully establish fisheries science and ma-

nagement in Burkina Faso. Not only scientific and political representatives,

but also students and other local actors such as fishermen or fishmongers


should have been part of the debate. These tasks clearly belong at the top of

any future research agenda for Burkinabè fisheries and water management.

Challenge of time: There was insufficient time to sustain these exercises

long enough to allow stakeholders to fully apply the knowledge bodies and to

explore different pathways to the development of sustainable fisheries over

the coming decades, such as applying forecasting and back-casting techni-

ques to exploit opportunities and challenges for the next twenty years tog-

ether. In these workshops, we needed at least three times as much time to

establish a transdisciplinary knowledge base for further work on sustainable

fisheries. Because of our extensive discussions, which lasted several days in-

stead of the two provisioned for, the first series of workshops ended with the

ranking of parameters. Altogether, the transdisciplinary project team would

have needed more time and virtual space to continue the process of evaluati-

on and understanding to the point where policy recommendations could have

been identified and agreed upon by the relevant stakeholders. The output of

this process did not include the activity for participatory scenario develop-

ment. But our exercises of systems analysis provided an interim base of re-

search findings, which derived from the identifying key parameters and key

relationships between them. As we had to adapt the research agenda, the mo-

delling session had been pushed back. So, the team as a whole could not run

through the creative process of developing new scenarios and exploring the

various pathways they embodied. Reasons for this decision were a) significant

restrictions by (non)availability of team members and travel costs, b) the pro-

ject schedule was very tight and important milestones, such as the delivery

of models, were already late. Therefore, the modelling had to be introduced

and organized in a one-day workshop and was left to a small team of Austrian

team members, which completed the experiment of modelling (see Figure 4).

Challenge of translation and language: In addition to the time factor, a se-

cond major challenge was to address the plurality of languages and linguistic

resources during scenario development exercises. In terms of languages em-

ployed during fieldwork, the team used plurilingual practices, such as transla-

tion and interpreting, in order to foster dialogue between researchers, practi-

tioners and the local community on sustainable fisheries policy. As previously

shown, using plurilingual practices was very important to allow a dialogue

where all participants were on a par with each other.The process of translati-

on wasmore than the transfer of knowledge from one word to another. Rather

it required a critical approach to how we frame and codify knowledge within

our disciplines and to learn how others do it. This became evident during the


Figure 4: SUSFISH research results related to food security, sustainable fisheries, wa-

ter quality boost the potential for development and education in Burkina Faso

whole research process, but explicitly in the interdisciplinary adaptive ma-

nagement workshops.

The involvement of diverse linguistic resources implies a reflection of pre-

judices, ideologies, and of understanding roles that are associated with diffe-

rent linguistic cultural backgrounds. It also meant to reflect on the exertion

of various different symbolic power and inherent power relations the team

was not aware of. The predominant use of English as language of scientific

communication risked to become a barrier to open discussions at some levels

of interaction. The questionnaires, for instance, used scientific and techno-

logically influenced language in the elaboration of key questions and in the

applied parameters. In our team, scientists and practitioners adapted qui-

te differently to this kind of knowledge translation applying a terminology

with key parameters using numeric values for modelling.The project idea was

embedded in the frame of bio-physical research, which provided the leading

ideology in defining relevant factors. We added socio-political questions, but

these did not constitute the source for developing ways to reflect. For our so-

cial scientists it was a learning process to search for the linguistic terms to

tell these scientifically framed narratives. It is a question of epistemological

positioning; knowledge was much more contextualized in the French, more


hegemonically grounded scientific tradition and therefore in a distinct tradi-

tion of narration. Therefore, it was important to develop a sensitive strategy

to avoid the temporary exclusion of team members in the transdisciplinary

discussions. We experienced for instance that it helped that a small group

switched to French or Moore or German to clarify certain points before con-

tinuing the discussion in the whole group.

Challenges on an organisational level: As the workshops were highly par-

ticipatory, this approach needed the commitment and collaboration of every

group member. But in practice, it was very difficult to reach this goal in a

group of 20 persons, who are partly in key management positions and chan-

ging working-conditions. Addressing the challenge of spontaneous changes

of availability, the responsible team members tried to focus the joint discus-

sions on issues following the disciplinary divide of bio-physics and socio-po-

litical sciences. It became evident that those discussions, which were held as

plenary and thus interdisciplinarity, were much richer in terms of compre-

hensive input and shared learning.

5.1.8. SUSFISH’s participatory approach: lessons learned and problems

Overall, the project team achieved important progress in generating know-

ledge in terms of new concepts, facts and perspectives about aquatic ecology,

water quality assessmentmethods as well as fisheries and water management

practices in all 13 regions of Burkina Faso.

The two PhD students from Burkina Faso, who were also partly study-

ing in Austria, and the four Austrian MA students, who studied in Burki-

na Faso, as well as the 13 Burkinabè MA students in Burkina Faso, formed a

group of young scholars who wanted to reflect on different research contexts.

They spent many weeks together, discussing, analyzing, and learning. Toge-

ther they had the opportunity to experience practical constraints and to learn

how to integrate this transcultural and interdisciplinary experience into the

research process. At the end of SUSFISH, the first generation of publications

and theses show an impressive contribution of junior scientists based on the

joint and reflexive research process of collecting data during fieldwork. Any-

how, the time when all students from every discipline were together was too

short for them to deeply learn and to benefit from other perspectives. Future

projects should focus on providing greater opportunities for such interdisci-

plinary learning.


The 19 students, responsible for data collection and processing, interacted

the most with practitioners during their fieldwork. Many of these relations-

hips between students and practitioners were long lasting and included an

intensive, highly participative joint research process. Our project design was

flexible enough and would have allowed for their participation in the process

of systems analysis. We could have incorporated them, when we designed

events. But actually, their participation was prevented by several reasons: It

was generally hard to assemble the whole team,we would have needed several

moremeetings just with the students to include the diverse perspectives from

such a large group. The flexible design ran into constraints of time and mo-

ney. Hierarchical aspects of supervisor-student relations did not made room

for their active participation. In terms of project design, they were not ex-

plicitly integrated on paper. However, we could have insisted on this from

the beginning. Their participation in this crucial part of the project would

have enriched our discussions and improved the process of systematization

of knowledge. Including students and other local actors, such as fishermen or

fishmongers, in addition to the scientific and political representatives in the

debate, would have been a significant contribution to rigorously identify how

to exploit opportunities and circumvent challenges to a successful establish-

ment of fisheries science and management in Burkina Faso over the next 20

years.

The participation of local authorities and practitioners from the fishing

communities, in joint research activities was intensive in terms of knowledge

elicitation and data collection on a local level, but not in the evaluation of

research findings. Had the project lasted longer, a reviewing process of SUS-

FISH findings with local actors would have been a significant contribution

from both groups. One goal of the project was a “communal review” to sha-

re outcomes and information with actors on the local and regional levels. For

reasons of time constraints and project monitoring we did not succeed in this

point. With this communal review, we possibly could have achieved our goal.

But it is also a matter of fact that for instance data processing in a scienti-

fic environment framed by academic expertise is hardly accessible for local

actors. Therefore, alternative ways of interaction are needed. For example, it

could be an interactive workshop for evaluation, where local fishermen’s ex-

pertise can be considered even at this level of research activities. The final

symposium in Ouagadougou, which was held as a public event, was a great

experience in terms of examination by practitioners. As delegates from 36 as-

sociations and organizations at local, regional and national level were present


and participated vividly in the debate, the challenge for us is how to continue

such multi-level exchange after the project ends.

The interaction between students and policy makers in the frame of gen-

der methodology workshops contributed significantly to the transdisciplina-

ry approach of SUSFISH in comparison to the workshops, which were held

within disciplinary boundaries. These joint meetings were on site and enab-

led mutual understanding and joint learning, as the gender related activities

showed. Furthermore, the reviewing activities (fieldwork tool kits, questionn-

aires, results and reports) of the gender expert became a source for defining

further questions. The research team became aware of this important contri-

bution and implemented these evaluating measures for other project reports.

But time was too short to cope with the organization of a joint evaluation

workshop at academic level before the project end.

For a synthesis of research findings, scenario development and systems

analysis were applied in workshops and modeling sessions in a very short

time period during the project’s last year. These tools require substantial in-

puts from the whole project team, because they entail complex processes of

reflection and discussion to address interdisciplinary questions. Sustaining

such discussions requires full commitment by participants and cannot bema-

naged by a single person. The process of negotiating meaning and mutual

understanding in a highly transdisciplinary context was enriching and im-

proved the joint knowledge base, but it was a challenge for all members to

link the various components in a very short time period. This reflexive dis-

cussion successfully led to the formulation of a strategy discussed in a pre-

sentation for ministerial stakeholders and decision makers. However, SUS-

FISH ended when dialogue with politicians started, a point when the pro-

ject’s collective experience should be applied while data is current and most

useful. Future projects should initiate such dialogues in an earlier phase. The

final phase should extend them to jointly develop a set of strategies with po-

licy makers and practitioners as part of identifying scenarios to successfully

establish sustainable fisheries management.

Overall, the synthesis was an important contribution of the project to in-

itiate this process of learning and understanding. The outcome was two sets

of lessons learned and remaining open questions that can help define future

research agendas. The process of knowledge transformation and understan-

ding is still ongoing, and was an important part of SUSFISH work. But to all

of us, it was an experiment to use tools such as scenario development for it,


and we learned, that these interactions need to be considered appropriately

in the research design in terms of expenditure in time and costs.

Participatory research enables continuous learning. We experienced very

different modes of learning at those various layers where participatory ex-

change of knowledge happened in our project. To illustrate how and by whom

meaning was co-created and our understanding enhanced, we will refer in

the next section to selected moments of our joint process of systematizati-

on of knowledge and reviewing our findings. The gender sensitive approach

introduced to SUSFISH will serve as example, as it provoked contestation be-

cause of inherent power structures and a donor-driven ideology. Questions

of language resources are crucial, when it comes to debate and contestati-

on. In SUSFISH we used plurilingual practices, but as it revealed aspects of

ideological positioning translation we will also point to translational practices

and the role of communicative possibilities in the context of epistemological

hegemonies.

5.2. Key moments of participatory research

5.2.1 Scenario development workshops - key to understanding

Predicting and managing a complex and evolving world is difficult. Adaptive

management represents experiments in new ways to learn and adapt science,

policy and practice even as onemanages a socio-ecological system (Sendzimir

et al. 2017).The imperative to flexiblymanage in adaptivemanagement priori-

tizes processes that generate learning,meaning, knowledge and experience of

ecosystem dynamics (Folke et al. 2005).The SUSFISH project embedded such

learning processes in a series of scenario development workshops. In these

exercises, teammembers representing academia and policy co-created know-

ledge about factors key to alternative scenarios of how fisheries management

might be developed in Burkina Faso. Our team objectives in these workshops

were to learn-by-doing participatory science to contribute to establish it as

another option in the support of policy formulation and application in Bur-

kina Faso. Therefore, the exercises allowed participants to mutually develop

skills to analyze and communicate complex ideas and formulate policy as well

as to study the factors influencing the dynamics of water and fisheries ma-

nagement in Burkina Faso (Peterson et al. 2003). By and large, themethodolo-

gy adopted to develop exploratory storylines during the first workshop series


followed a procedure of three stages: a first stage is geared towards identi-

fying of main concerns about future developments; a second stage focuses

on the discussion of key uncertainties and driving forces; and a third stage

develops the actual scenarios. It is important to mention that this approach

of scenario development was introduced for the first time to the majority of

team members.

The workshops were initially based on a diversity of approaches to em-

brace different perspectives in a knowledge co-creation process.Through dia-

logue and storytelling, we aimed to shape the definition of phenomena and

problems related to the future of Burkinabè fisheries.When starting storyline

development several steps were taken within SUSFISH to increase the num-

ber of iterations, the most important being to start with an existing set of

scenarios. This eliminated the most time-consuming step of building story-

lines from scratch, thereby speeding up the process and increasing the num-

ber of iterations of the Story-And-Simulation cycle. To that end, we collected

this first set of scenarios with short narrations already prior to the workshop,

which could serve us to elicit a set of important issues. With the purpose to

elicit standardized narrations and to establish a common language across the

project team to facilitate learning, we used a questionnaire, which was sent

to all team members.

The questionnaire was designed for eliciting knowledge by focusing atten-

tion through a set of questions. It asked for 1) processes or trends influencing

fishery sustainability, 2) key words, 3) scenario showing how sustainability is

influenced (3 sentences or less), 4) important factors involved in this scenario,

5) relations between factors that influence this scenario (factors involved, how

they interact, results) and finally 6) key questions or uncertainties. The ques-

tionnaire was sent out via e-mail and team members had about three weeks

to fill it and send it back before the workshop. Further information how to

use the questionnaire was provided only written.

Except for the students in Austria, not attending the workshop in Burki-

na Faso, an extra workshop on storytelling and formulating key questions was

held in advance. The response to this questionnaire from Burkinabè partners

was very low, only a few questionnaires on issues in natural sciences came

back, and therefore the elicitation of key parameterswas very limited.The rea-

sons why this instrument was not functioning remained unrevealed. Howe-

ver, based on our experience of the effectiveness of face-to-face dialogue we

adapted such questionnaires into a structured interview format because the

questionnaire was obviously not acknowledged as a tool by the whole team.


Thus, the schedule was slightly changed and narratives were developed

dialogically during two consecutive workshops at the beginning of the mo-

delling exercise. We collected interactively short narrations among all parti-

cipants. Every member was given a large degree of freedom, in terms of how

to frame and express with own words and in a familiar language, to develop

his or her own scenarios or phenomena. In most cases this led to a set of

first storylines, in which the starting points were recognizable. In this first

step it became evident, that only by working together to answer the questi-

onnaire could the participants become come comfortable and fully respond to

the technical language of systems analysis used to frame the questions. It was

familiar to the participants, but in different shapes. For instance, the notion

of a scenariowas very abstract in the beginning, it was used as a quite technical

term. Therefore, we needed to establish a common ground of understanding

how to use this terminology and logic as a tool for our participatory approach.

As we were not fully aware of this lacking common understanding, the two

workshops were divided in a session focusing on biophysical issues and anot-

her for the socio-political questions. It was an important learning effect to the

whole group, that it seemed to be more familiar to the experts from natural

sciences to formulate key arguments, develop scenarios in three sentences as

well as to trigger events. As a consequence, we encouraged all team members

to participate in both workshops actively regardless of disciplines and profes-

sional expertise. The joint work in crossing disciplinary boundaries helped to

identify key factors by breaking out of a technical aid speak and to integrate

our different ways of knowing.

During the workshops, collaboration improved as we acknowledged and

renegotiated the workshops’ purposes, explaining in the process the metho-

dological approach of scenario development and its importance to our fin-

dings. This effort was done in several days when we followed consequently

the stories brought up in the workshops. In order to tackle complexity of pro-

blems we assessed together two types of knowledge: Knowledge academically

collected and evaluated and on the other hand co-created knowledge between

the involved researchers and practitioners, that is contextualized in social in-

teractions and local systems. This process was quite intensive, enriching but

also exhausting sometimes. As previouslymentioned, it was necessary to pur-

sue the lively debate in several languages. In some cases, it was necessary to

evoke them in languages such as Jula or Moore. And because of plurilingu-

al communication situations it was not evident that all the information and

knowledge could be grasped by interpreting after the sometimes, long-lasting


discussions to integrate them in the scenario development in scientific Eng-

lish. Translation became key to understanding and making meaning in this

context.

5.2.2. The debate is open: translational practices to negotiate

meaning

During the workshops, we experienced translation practices as a valuable in-

strument to negotiate meaning in order to experiment with new forms of

thought and action - socially creative strategies - in order to understand pro-

blems and complexity not only through responsibilities, competences, and

disciplines. We used them as a tool for the experiment of translating diverse

theoretical concepts into the specific research contexts of fisheries and water

management in our research areas. To a certain extent, translating showed

us how theoretical concepts were constructed. It helped us to explore ways on

how to adopt theory to practice.

But before it is important to elaborate on the notion of translation we

use in this context. Translational practices do not apply simple linguistic re-

lations, but go beyond equivalence and a copying of the original. We under-

stand them as a continuous process of transformation (Bachmann-Medick

2009). Translation is the work of social worlds and not individuals (Gal 2015)

and does not establish equivalence (Sakai 2006). It also involves appropriati-

on and representation.The realm of translating language and text thus opens

up to include a wider horizon of cultural translation practices (Bachmann-

Medick 2006). It became a fundamental category of analysis in order to meet

the transcultural challenges of our research practice and the contentious field

of transcultural and transdisciplinary encounters. It is not the textual notion

of translation into simplistic metaphors of transmission. An additional, de-

cisive quality of this concept of translation is that it is tied to everyday life and

agency and not to a few persons with cultural expertise. In our scenario de-

velopment sessions, which were linguistically and theoretically very complex,

we used this technique for dealing with multi-layered differences and dis-

junctions in knowledge, perceptions as well as in discourses not only bound

to diverse languages, but also to different learning traditions.

Furthermore, interpreting practices among the participants were ne-

cessary in these sessions as French, English, Moore and Jula were very

important means of communication amongst the participants, but not

mutually understood by everybody. We experienced this necessity of inter-


pretation during the discussions on the concept of subsistence. The term came

up in the elaboration of key parameters for the commodification of fish.

During this process, we identified subsistence fishing as a key parameter for

questions of how to manage fisheries sustainably in Burkina Faso especially

with regard to water health, sustainable water use around the reservoir and

issues of environmental pollution. Farmers, who fish during the dry season,

act individually, and are not organized within an association or governmental

management authority. They use the resource of water for irrigation and for

fishing adjusted for their personal needs, and this practice is governed by a

traditional management system of natural resources. Introducing commerci-

al fishing to this system exposes a gap in management. In order to integrate

this aspect in our scenarios, first of all it was necessary to define subsistence

fishing as a measurable category in contrast to commercial fishing. Politi-

cians introduced it to our discussion as a very technical concept, clear-cut

and static. It was framed in the development paradigm as to meet the basic

needs of food security. But the method of systems analysis required us to define

relationships to other parameters and along disciplines and revealed the need

to better understand different interpretations of subsistence. For instance,

in natural sciences it was necessary to clarify if subsistence is measurable by

an average earning per fishermen.

Later, the question of surplus came up: is it still considered as subsistence

activity with purchases in themarket? Social sciences assumed that the short-

term planning for livelihood might be a significant characteristic of subsis-

tence, too. In ecology, the concept includes a dimension of sustainable so-

cial practice as it can be seen to contrast with larger-scale, more intensive

commercial practices. The conflicting overlaps between interpretations see-

med first to block attempts to agree on a clear-cut definition as our deba-

te widened to a new dimension of complexity, instead of narrowing down

to measurability. But by re-inventing the phenomenon subsistence through

translational mediation we gained more understanding and became aware

of misunderstandings. In this case, the term served as an interaction point of

reference. Contradictions and misunderstandings indicated where we should

critically reflect assumptions and prejudices. Indeed, the mode of thinking

itself also benefits from translational qualities, and limitation of thoughts

becomes obvious while reflecting on processes of mediation. As translation

is not a unilateral one-way activity, we started with mediation activities. We

used several languages for this debate, although some parts of the conversa-

tion were not accessible for everybody present in the workshop. The shift to


French and Moore was important, because then the meaning and percepti-

on were shifted, and, most importantly, mutually transformed. For instance,

we gained insight regarding the hegemonial aspects inherent to this concept,

such as the implicit connotation with poverty, primitive societies and back-

wardness framed by tradition. We assume that theoretical terminology is not

simply a given static entity, but is created in a continuous process through

translation in the first place. It also questions notions of origin as well as

concepts of authenticity: in our case the distant habitus of policy-making in-

stitutions became evident, who fail to take into account dimensions such as

special skills and knowledge of local resource users.

While we did not end up the discussion with a new clear-cut definition,

translational processes allowed us to grasp in much more differentiated ways

the term subsistence as it is widely used, but the process of learning how to

understand better was very rich. In this regard we experienced traditional

fishing practices as un-stable categories, and as a place of active transition

and of cultural production of creolization - such as the translational adaptation

of elements of French (neo)colonial dominant rhetoric, or its assimilations.

For us it was an important process to break up clustered, blanket concep-

tions of “intercultural” difference into singular steps of translation through

which acts of understanding, mediation can be revealed, and misunderstan-

dings and communication blockages become acknowledged rather than ob-

scured. It induced us to reflect on how our own culturally specific positions -

although seeming very objective, are loaded with ideologies on marginaliza-

tion and disadvantage.

These activities are not necessarily always smooth or successful or capable

of “bridging gaps”, but differentiation enriches analysis. Furthermore, it em-

bodies the basic elements for a self-reflection of transdisciplinarity. Only by

exceeding the current limits of explorations at the borders of the disciplines

it was possible to better understand the zones of overlap between different

disciplines as perhaps conflictual yet productive and readily negotiable zo-

nes of translation. But it is vital to this approach of mediation processes to

be sensitive to translational qualities, which allow differentiation and which

enrich rather than simplify meaning. It is indispensably indirect, mediated

by a third party and should include the acknowledgement of disruptions, re-

jections, misunderstandings and conflicts that can occur in our research pro-

cesses. Most importantly this is tied to the ideological and perilous role of the

translator him/herself as a cultural and language broker (Jacquemet 2005),

which has to be reflected in every transdisciplinary research process. Trans-


lators constitute knowledge and speech style and precisely such qualities of

inconsistencies, obstacles and resistance are predominantly obscured from

view in participatory approaches (Gal 2015). Understanding is a fundamen-

tal aspect of knowledge production processes, these become more complex

when multilingual practices and translocal contextualization, reconceptuali-

zation and the translation of knowledge are involved (Langthaler et al. 2012).

In our interactions we had to deal with internationally established knowledge

in English scientific and often political registers, by translating them on our

own we started to reflect our own positions and to revise our professional ra-

tionality. But as Gal (2015: 233) argues, a semiotic analysis of these compon-

ents of (Latourian) translation would clarify the parallel ongoing processes of

transformation and recreation.

Much knowledge was produced and also gained by means of translation

and by questioning our own culturally specific positions, analytical concepts,

and theoretical assumptions.The understanding of local concepts is therefore

the result of an ongoing process whose point of reference is situated within

the complex field of conflicts defined as socio-cultural peculiarities. Here it

was very important to no longer see cultures as holistic and self-contained

phenomena, with a common ground for their contexts of meaning. Discus-

sions of cultural features exhibited the interwoven discourses of colonial and

postcolonial thoughts. Translation is not conceived of as a strategy of simpli-

fication and of diminishing the issue’s complexity, i.e. it is not a dichotomist

way of handling cultural differences. We had to deal with the complexity of

differences - and we did not only establish differences, but also considered

their scope of negotiation by applying a strategy of interpretation and me-

diation.

Part of such a task of translation required the consideration of power hier-

archies and asymmetries that were also evident in knowledge traditions. To

us it was important to become aware of the highly diverse set of hierarchical

systems we were involved in. For the SUSFISH team the concept of gender

balance within our research agenda provided an insight to this multi-layered,

interferential system of concepts and ideologies.

5.2.3. The debate on gender

We made significant progress in examining aggregate patterns of social in-

teraction and their influence on natural resource management. By discussing

our different, sometimes diverging perceptions and also by interpreting cer-


tain issues, we could even deepen our understanding of other perspectives on

gender topics. But in the beginning, it was a real challenge for the group to

accept a gender sensitive approach applied across all disciplines. As a condi-

tion for funding, it was introduced as a hegemonic concept into the SUSFISH

research agenda.The team coped with this challenge by engaging a gender ex-

pert. And because of her expertise and experience, she started to involve the

team members, despite their opposition, in gender workshops and trainings

in order to introduce gender-sensitive indicators and tools for data collection,

as already outlined in the previous section. But the majority of in-country

project partners continued to be irritated, questioning the meaningfulness

of such trainings for biophysical scientists. During the scenario development

workshops the debate on gender issues became quite imbalanced, reinforcing

obscure assumptions on both sides.

In one of the first workshops, held after two years of cooperation, very

controversial positions ensued on the usefulness of a general application of

this concept on our project. The debate revealed the very abstract nature of

this concept, which policy makers had introduced in a very technical manner

and prioritized by making its study contingent on funding. It was framed in

clear-cut definitions of expert’s register that subsumes basic rights in a cita-

tional practice (see Gal 2015).Therefore, in the beginning of our discussions, it

was a highly contested issue because the whole gender approach was reduced

to the numeric equivalence between men and women and the conflict revol-

ved around feelings of injustice. It was not acceptable for everybody that, for

instance, male students applying for grants within the project should be dis-

advantaged because of the low rate of female researchers in our team. Some

experiences of involving female students in fieldwork activities were negative,

because of their low engagement and a verymodest interest for bio-physics in

general. Questions of structural discrimination or social exclusion of female

students in the context of education and academic career development were

not raised until the discussion turned on the family situation of a female rese-

archer of the team. Now the gender expert started renegotiating the concept

and could explain to her colleagues why a gender strategy in the fisheries sec-

tor also needs to integrate female perspectives. She started to translate this

very theoretical concept by re-contextualizing it to the female researchers’

perspective. At the same time, the gender expert’s role completely changed

within the team. She had followed the discussion for a long time without any

substantial objection to the debate dominated by her male colleagues. But


on the dispute about equal access for female students to natural sciences she

started to provoke contradiction in order to elicit hidden assumptions.

At the beginning, in our questionnaires and hierarchization exercises, ca-

tegories such asmarginalized people, equitable development and participationwere

used like exclusive items, serving an expert jargon within the hegemonic pa-

radigm of development. For the process of renegotiatingmeaning, it was very

important to have an interaction on this in the team. Together we started to

examine categories and analytical concepts in terms of their translatability in

the realm of gender issues, to open them up and create a transgressive com-

mon understanding for our research agenda in several languages. And again,

the concept of language we use is not a concept of bounded entities clear-

ly separable by names and categories, such as Moore, French or English, but

a space to learn about meaning in between varieties, linguistic features and

jargons (Makoni et al. 2007). Terms such as marginalization were discussed

among the Moore-speaking group in order to explore matters of oppression

and discrimination of women in rural areas. It helped to realize that our per-

ceptions of rural work and household organisation are quite distant to the life

world of fishing communities. As a consequence, research data and prelimi-

nary results were shared, discussed and evaluated in workshops with women

associations.The debate on gender issues in bio-physics remained controver-

sial, especially about correlations of processing fish practices and the diversity

of fish species.We could not agree about the integration of gender-related ca-

tegories in our interpretation of data on biodiversity and water health, but it

was important that we confronted contradictions. Misunderstandings chan-

ged in terms of exceeding the current limits of explorations at the borders

of the disciplines. It clearly helped us to explore new, more appropriate de-

finitions, which were developed on a common ground of understanding. We

shared a broader “cross-categorical translation” as a way of opening up this

mechanism in a critical manner (Chakrabarty 2000). It was possible to bet-

ter understand the zones of overlap between different disciplines as perhaps

conflictual yet productive and readily negotiable zones of translation. As par-

ticipants in transdisciplinary dialogues, we were designated to discover new

interconnections between allegedly different dimensions of social exclusion.

It helped us to understand better that it is crucial to transdisciplinary research

to have a team of women and men, regardless of the disciplines and research

areas.


5.3. Conclusion and main learnings

This project illustrates how a transdisciplinary research approach can reveal

important cross-sectoral phenomena in sustainable fisheries in Burkina Faso.

SUSFISH was founded by natural scientists and is based mainly on biophy-

sical science. It explores the possibilities in analyzing fisheries in order to

manage them sustainably. Therefore, the conceptualization integrated know-

ledge from social sciences, but in a very technical manner and only in the

final phase of the project. A few workshops on modelling and synthesis exer-

cises among scientists and policy makers provided room for discussion across

disciplinary boundaries. More than 100 scientists, students, experts, fisher-

men, and others were directly involved in SUSFISH for a four-year period of

cooperation. Their participation on a platform to bring their knowledge tog-

ether happened only at the end of the project, organized as a final conference

meeting. Due to very limited financial resources, the synthesis process to es-

tablish a joint foundation of knowledge could not include them all.The project

would have benefitted had the local experts on all levels been more involved.

There were moments of applied participatory research as described by

Haller et al. (2016), but participatory research was not conceptualized as a

comprehensive approach. Moreover, participatory research moments were

restricted to the following three levels: field research, training for local groups,

and scenario development. It is important to note that the first twomoments,

data collection in the field and training of local groups, were not considered

to be important interdisciplinary learning contexts. Hence, they were organi-

zed along criteria of group membership, time, and place - and strictly within

disciplinary boundaries. It was assumed that the third step, the synthesis pro-

cess, would provide local experts’ knowledge to the joint exercises among the

core team - transmitted by the responsible scientists - in order to develop sce-

narios together. We realized that this strategy to integrate knowledge step by

step from a local to amore general viewwas theoretically sound, but only part-

ly successful in research practice. Had there been an ethnographic approach,

such as participant observation and qualitative interviewing as back-up to

accompany the activities with local practitioners, important insights would

have been taken more into consideration by the scientific experts. This would

have had practical implications for every step taken regarding the design and

application of questionnaires, policies, scientific knowledge and would have

made the integration of local ecological knowledge possible.


Ideological assumptions on local knowledge and the role of experts hinde-

red a broader recognition of local expertise as data.This should be thoroughly

analyzed, not only presented as experience gained or as individual stories.

In our reflections regarding the process of synthesis happening at the

third level of participatory research moments, we concluded that the effort

to look thoroughly across disciplines can never be comprehensive in such a

short time and with only a few meetings involving all experts. SUSFISH can

thus be regarded as an exercise allowing for joint learning processes,which, in

turn, can help extract the most important factors shaping ongoing questions

for future shared research.

But beyond that we also experienced participatory research as taking place

largely in controversial debates, full of inconsistencies, obstacles, and resis-

tance. The participants’ mutual work of collecting, analyzing and negotiating

the meaning of information involved acknowledging these disruptions, rejec-

tions, misunderstandings, and conflicts. We used these meetings in a similar

way as described for the constitutionality process (Haller and Merten 2018)

and experienced them as a strategy for politicians and scientists to examine

the dynamic implications of the facts and questions generated by the project.

Very important was the process in terms of negotiating meaning and finding

a compromise.

In retrospect, basic obstacles were the following:

• A short time frame: The transdisciplinary learning process was consid-

erably more intensive as anticipated and would thus have needed much

more time for discussion, as it took place largely through controversial de-

bates. Therefore, transdisciplinary research activities are one of the most

important contact zones, which should be planned rigorously from the

beginning. An important lesson learned is to organize research activities

along a continuous sequence of dialogic transdisciplinary activities for the

whole duration of the project.

• One core element of our SUSFISH research was to establish and intensify

cooperation among the many partners (nationally in Burkina Faso and in

Austria as well as internationally between institutions of both countries

involved) and was obviously too ambitious.The organization of a set of co-

operation-promoting activities, such as joint interdisciplinary field trips,

transdisciplinaryworkshops, joint lectures, shared supervisingmodels for

students (cross institutionally), system analysis, and concept modelling,

was thus a challenge as well.


• Power asymmetries regarding class and gender: We realized too late that

integrating students and important stakeholders in these learning and

evaluation processes would have been very important. But a key question

is how to organize such a space for debate in terms of time, languages,

and power hierarchies. Another challenge was how to provide platforms

to engage different stakeholders involved in the fisheries management at

all levels and in group compositions, thus allowing them to interact.

• Power asymmetries are interwoven with language issues as well. An addi-

tional challenge is the issue of access in terms of language, education, and

knowledge in such participatory debates. The involvement of diverse lin-

guistic resources implies a reflection on prejudices, ideologies, and an un-

derstanding of roles. It also requires methods of linguistic anthropology

to reflect on the exertion of symbolic power and inherent power relations

the team was not aware of.

• Much knowledge was produced and also gained by means of translation

and by questioning our own culturally specific positions, analytical con-

cepts, and theoretical assumptions. The process of translation was more

than the transfer of knowledge from one word to another. But we did

not assess these communicative practices qualitatively. Later on, it was

not possible anymore to analyze our social interaction in detail. The ap-

proach definitely requires ethnographic tools in order to grasp the process

of knowledge framing and codifying, the translational practices within

our disciplines, and to learn how others do it.

• Another obstacle to overcoming scientifically-based language we expe-

rienced in the SUSFISH project is written into the paradigm of devel-

opment cooperation. This approach by its very nature implies inherent

power asymmetries and imbalanced relationships due to obscure assump-

tions and expectations. These were implicit and therefore remained un-

contested for a long time. But the conceptual space of modelling work-

shops obliged us to formulate some of our concerns and ideologically

loaded assumptions. In addition, our discussions revealed that language

and terminology play a crucial role in reconfirming development-driven

concepts as well. Scientifically codified language was removed step-by-

step for systems analysis reasons in order to open up a discussion about

prejudices, ideologies, and an understanding of roles. We experienced

plurilingual practices as a very important tool to allow for a dialogue on a

par with each other.


Studying fisheries with natural science techniques based primarily on bio-

physical research does, in itself, not produce the requested solutions for

sustainable management as our findings in social, economic, and political

sciences showed. The exercises in systems analysis revealed a lack of insight

regarding the patterns of social systems (blind spots), which are very much

related to the ecological systems. The results of case studies in various sites

clearly showed the need to understand local economies, political structures,

and plurilingual practices as well as local knowledge. Yet even more promi-

nent was the need to understand existing, often inherent power relations

among local groups as well as among international experts. This experience

includes a deeper understanding and learning in a transdisciplinary pro-

cess in all research activities. A recurrent challenge to this method was the

planning and working in a broad heterogeneous team.

5.4. References

Bachmann-Medick, D. (2006). Cultural Turns. Neuorientierungen in den Kul-

turwissenschaften. Reinbek bei Hamburg: Rowohlt.

Bachmann-Medick, D. (2009). Introduction: The translational turn. Transla-

tion Studies, 2(1), 2–16.

Berkes, F. (1999). Sacred ecology. Traditional ecological knowledge and re-

source management. Philadelphia: Taylor and Francis.

Bhabha, H. (2000). Die Verortung der Kultur. Tübingen: Stauffenburg.

Bourdieu, P. (1996). Understanding.Theory, Culture and Society: Explorations

in Critical Social Science, 13(2), 17–37.

Chabwela, H.N. and Haller, T. (2010). Governance issues, potentials and fail-

ures of participative collective action in the Kafue Flats, Zambia. Interna-

tional Journal of the Commons, 4(2), 621–642.

Chakrabarty, Dipesh. (2000). Provincializing Europe. Postcolonial thought

and historical difference. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

CNID-B. (Comité National d’Irrigation et de Drainage du Burkina Faso).

(2010a). Diagnostic participatif du périmètre irrigué de Karfiguéla. In-

ternal report. Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso: IWMI.

CNID-B. (Comité National d’Irrigation et de Drainage du Burkina Faso).

(2010b). Diagnostic participatif du périmètre de Talembika. Internal re-

port. Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso: IWMI.


Foucault, M. (1981). The order of discourse. In: Young, R. (ed.). Untying the

text. A post-structuralist reader (pp. 48–78). New York: Routledge and

Kegan Paul.

Folke, C., Hahn, T., Olsson, P. and Norberg, J. (2005). Adaptive governance of

social-ecological systems. Annual Review of Environment and Resources,

30, 441–473.

Gal, S. (2015). Politics of translation. Annual Review of Anthropology, 44,

225–240.

Haller, T., Acciaioli, G. and S. Rist. (2016). Constitutionality: Conditions for

crafting local ownership of institution-building processes. Society and


Haller, T. andMerten, S. (2008). “We are Zambians—Don’t tell us how to fish!”

Institutional change, power relations and conflicts in the Kafue Flats fish-

eries in Zambia. Human Ecology, 36(5), 699–715.

Haller, T. and Merten S. (2010). “We had cattle and did not fish and hunt any-

how!” Institutional change and contested commons in the Kafue Flats

floodplain (Zambia). In: Haller, T. (ed.). Disputing the floodplains (pp

301–360). African Social Studies Series 22. Leiden: Brill.



Ecology, 46(1), 3–13.

Jacquemet, M. (2005). Transidiomatic practices: Language and power in the

age of globalization. Language and Communication, 25, 257–277.

Kaboré, I.,Moog, O., Alp,M., Guenda,W., Koblinger, T.,Mano, K., Ouéda, A.,

Ouedraogo, R., Trauner, D. and Melcher, A. (2016a). Using macro-inverte-

brates for ecosystem health assessment in semi-arid streams of Burkina

Faso. Hydrobiologia, 766(1), 57–74.

Kaboré, I., Jäch, M.A., Ouéda, A., Moog, O., Guenda, W. and Melcher, A.

(2016b). Dytiscidae, Noteridae and Hydrophilidae of semi-arid waterbod-

ies in Burkina Faso: species inventory, diversity and ecological notes. Jour-

nal of Biodiversity and Environmental Science, 8(4), 1–14.

Kok, K., Van Vliet,M., Dubel, A., Sendzimir, J. and Bärlund, I. (2011). Combin-

ing participative backcasting and explorative scenario development: Ex-

periences from the SCENES project. Technological Forecasting and Social

Change, 78, 835–851.

Langthaler, M.,Witjes, N. and Slezak G. (2012). A critical reflection on knowl-

edge hierarchies, language and development.Multicultural Education and

Technology Journal, 6(4), 235–247.


Mano, K. (2016). Fish assemblages and fish-based assessment of the ecologi-

cal integrity of river networks in Burkina Faso. Unpublished PhD disser-

tation. BOKU, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna.

Mahé, G., Paturel, J.E., Servat, E., Conway, D. and Dezetter, A. (2005). Impact

of land use change on soil water holding capacity and river modelling of

the Nakambé river in Burkina-Faso. Journal of Hydrology, 300, 33–43.

MAHRH (Ministère de l’Agriculture, de l’Hydraulique et des Ressources

Halieutiques). (2003). Action Plan for Water Resources Integrated Man-

agement (PAGIRE). Ouagadougou. Burkina Faso: MAHRH.

MAHRH. (2006). Politique nationale de développement durable de l’agri-

culture irriguée. Stratégie, plan d’action, plan d’investissement à l’hori-

zon 2015 – Rapport principal, MAHRH, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso:

MAHRH.

Makoni, S. and Pennycook, A. (eds.). (2007). Disinventing and reconstituting

languages. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

Melcher A., Ouedraogo, R. and Schmutz, S. (2012). Spatial and seasonal fish

community patterns in impacted and protected semi-arid rivers of Burk-

ina Faso. Ecological Engineering, 48, 117–129.

Melcher A., Ouedraogo, R., Moog, O., Slezak, G., Savadogo, M. and Sendz-

imir, J. (2018). Healthy fisheries sustain society and ecology in Burkina

Faso. In: Schmutz, S. (ed.). (2018). Riverine ecosystems management. Sci-

ence for governing towards a sustainable future (pp. 519–540). Aquatic

Ecology Series 8. Cham: Springer.

Ouédraogo, R. (2010). Fish and fisheries prospective in arid inland waters of

Burkina Faso,West Africa. Unpublished PhD dissertation. BOKU, Univer-

sity of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna.

Peterson, G.D., Cumming, G.S. and Carpenter, S.R. (2003). Scenario plan-

ning: a tool for conservation in an uncertain world. Conservation Biology,

17, 358–366.

Petit, O. and Baron, C. (2009). Integrated Water Resources Management:

From general principles to its implementation by the state. The case of

Burkina Faso. Natural Resources Forum, 33, 49–59.

Sally,H., Lévite,H. andCour, J. (2011). Local watermanagement of small reser-

voirs: Lessons from two case studies in Burkina Faso. Water Alternatives,

4(3), 365–382.

Sakai, N. (2006). Translation. Theory Culture Society, 23(2–3), 71–86.


Sanon, V.-P. and Toe, P. (2015). Gouvernance et institutions traditionnelles

dans les pêcheries de l’ouest du Burkina Faso. Etudes africaines. Paris:

L’Harmattan.

Sendzimir, J., Reij, C.P. and Magnuszewski, P. (2011). Rebuilding resilience in

the Sahel: regreening in the Maradi and Zinder regions of Niger. Ecology

and Society, 16(3), 1.

Sendzimir, J., Magnuszewski, P. and Gunderson, L. (2017). Adaptive man-

agement of riverine socio-ecological systems. In: Schmutz, S. and Sendz-

imir, J. (eds.). Riverine EcosystemManagement - Science for governing to-

wards a sustainable future (pp. 301–324). Aquatic Ecology Series 8. Cham:

Springer.

Stranzl, S. (2014). Quantification of human impacts on fish assemblages in the

Upper Volta catchment, Burkina Faso. Unpublished Master thesis. BOKU,

University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna.

Thompson Klein, J. (2004). Prospects for transdisciplinarity. Futures, 36(4),

515–526.

Venot, J.P. and Cecchi, P. (2011). Valeurs d’usage ou performances techniques:

Comment apprécier le rôle des petits barrages en Afrique subsaharienne?

Cahiers Agricultures, 20(1-2), 112–117.

6. Conclusion

Explorations and lessons for shared research

Claudia Zingerli and Tobias Haller

6.1. Explorations

This book is about researching and interpreting African environments by rea-

ding the landscape and the use of natural resources through different scien-

tific, societal and political lenses. Inevitably, this creates struggles between

disciplinary research traditions and emphases, and between the interpreta-

tions of the researchers and those of the researched. None of the authors in

this book shied away from these struggles. They made productive use of na-

tural science data, treating this information as being of equal importance to

the practices and rationales of natural resource users.

In our opening chapter we described a broad spectrum of research in Af-

rican environments, and demonstrated this breadth by reference to leading

scholars who combined generalist and specialist knowledge about human-

environment relationships. Our explorations went far back in time - some-

thing that in the business of science in the twenty-first century is rarely pos-

sible.They referred to the paradigmatic work of Fairhead and Leach (1996) and

Berkes (1999) on African environments, institutions and the role of conserva-

tion and natural resource management for humanity and nature in the late

twentieth century, and they went back even further in time to the nineteenth

century, reflecting on Alexander von Humboldt’s approaches to researching

America’s environments (see Wulf 2016). These explorations emphasized the

merits not only of a mixed methodology but of the turn towards integration

in research on (African) environments (see Bornemann et al. 2017), combining

disciplinary methodologies as well as the essentials for knowledge production

based on the relationships between researchers and researched.

Now, in our final chapter, we bring into focusmultidisciplinary andmixed

methods research and their methodological and learning implications. The

168 Claudia Zingerli and Tobias Haller

articles collected in this edited volume speak of socially and environmentally

grounded research that requires ample time and familiarity with specific con-

texts at various levels, enabling learning as a multidimensional andmultilevel

process. They reveal key turning points in the participatory research process

that arise from collaboration, exchange and intense debates about the role of

language and translation in interdisciplinary and intercultural research set-

tings. All the articles have a distinctive approach to the researcher-researched

nexus, and are aware of the emergent character of such interactions.

For our final explorations regarding research processes, we again go back

in time. We have found it useful to analyse how the contributions of Prudat

et al., Oyama, Jewitt et al. and Slezak et al. mirror the basic principles of ac-

tion anthropology, which was initiated as early as the 1950s (Tax 1975). Sol

Tax’s initiative in the 1950s was grounded on the understanding that working

with the first nation indigenous peoples of the Meskwaki (also called Fox In-

dians) in their remaining small reserves only made sense if this work was co-

research on topics relevant to these people. Moreover, the insights into these

topics would be linked to actions in which the anthropologists became ad-

vocates for these people in domains in which the local groups did not have

the knowledge or power to act. Tax labelled this process action anthropolo-

gy (see Tax 1975), and his approach was later used by a few anthropologists

in the 1980s and 1990s (see Schlesier 1980, Seithel 2000, 2004), but regained

momentum in a special issue by Stapp et al. (2012). Foley (1999) and Bennett

(1996) then published several critical reflections on how this, often unrecogni-

zed, approach had influenced the more widely accepted applied anthropology

approach, in which local involvement in research, especially on development

issues, was created. In contrast to the action anthropology approach of co-

creation and concerted action, applied anthropology is usually implemented

as an anthropology for but not necessary with local people. Applied anthro-

pology tries, to solve practical problems in many other fields as defined only

by local people, such as health and medicine, business, education, environ-

mental issues, community development, disaster research and international

development (Van Willigen 2002). Applied anthropology, however, tends to

lack the critical means to integrate, appreciate or anticipate local knowledge,

in contrast to action anthropology, whose creators put at centre stage the local

people and the researchers.

In the four articles collected in this book, elements of action and app-

lied anthropology can be detected, whether or not the researchers are trai-

ned anthropologists. All the researchers demonstrated an openness towards

Conclusion 169

different disciplines and scientific domains, and exposed themselves to si-

tuations of uncertainty in researcher-researched relationships. In all cases,

living through discomfort (such as translation challenges and conceptual dis-

crepancies), unexpected and counterintuitive actions led them to come up

with accounts that speak about social learning and the co-creation of know-

ledge, enabling a critical reflection on how research in African environments

can evolve. In this way they combined different disciplinary research traditi-

ons with a more rigorous and extended approach, taking into account local

perceptions about issues and then readjusting to take their next steps.

In the following we look at four elements that seem particularly striking

for a reflection about what wewould like to call “shared research”, by which we

mean research co-produced for making use of the fluidity of knowledge about

natural and social processes in African environments, in order to demonstrate

that there are multiple ways of dealing with the challenges of unsustainable

development. These four elements are:

• Learning as a multidimensional and multilevel process over an extended

time and scale;

• The dimensions of participatory research;

• The role of language and translation in interdisciplinary and intercultural

research settings; and

• Turning points in collaborative research processes.

We also argue that these processes represent journeys that are closer to action

anthropology than to applied anthropology, and that this position is needed

in order to understand local issues and to engage in a process of shared and

also co-owned research.

6.2. Learning as a multidimensional and multilevel process

The literature distinguishes between different orders of learning. According

to Sterling (2011), first order learning refers to the reproduction of knowledge

and “doing things better”, and second order learning to critical reflection and

“doing better things”. In addition to these two orders, a transformative form

of learning exists, leading to an experience of reflecting about our worldview

rather than seeing with our worldview. Such a reflection enables us to be

more open to, and to draw upon, other views and possibilities (Sterling 2011).


According to Land et al. (2014), transformative learning implies a paradigm

change triggered by experiences of liminality. This paradigm change is an

in-between state of ambiguity or disorientation in the process of learning

and understanding, and has effects on knowledge production processes. We

would also argue that a shared learning process, in which all partners in the

process are mutually perceived as providing knowledge, creates the dignity

and respect that are the basis for learning collaborations. Like the Fox project

in which Sol Tax and his students became engaged with the local first nation

people (Foley 1999) and, in another context, research on commonpool resource

management in African contexts (Haller 2010), the initial top-down approach

in each of the processes portrayed gave way to a sharing of knowledge with

local actors, and co-developing and enabling actions.

All four contributions in this edited volume are framed by reference points

given by global or regional policy frameworks, such as international soil ca-

tegorization and the implications of soil resource management, policies for

afforestation and combatting desertification in the Sahel, efficient energy use

by promoting the use of cookstoves, or the multiple use of water reserves for

both fish and energy production to enhance food security.The researchers en-

gage in one way or another with understanding institutional design and the

governance of common-pool resources in a global-local world (see also Haller

et al. 2019). They all contextualize the policy frameworks in which the rese-

arch is embedded, using thick descriptions of how those frameworks play out

in their research processes and in various contexts and localities - and they

reveal how much those frameworks differ from the assumptions and con-

ceptualizations of the African environments. All four contributions reflect on

their stages of ambiguity or disorientation, Prudat et al. by juxtaposing lo-

cal knowledge and international soil classifications, Oyama by liminal expe-

riments using urban waste for improving soil fertility and land management,

Jewitt et al. by debating cookstoves in culturally and economically diverse set-

tings, and Slezak et al. by addressing the limits of inter- and transdisciplinary

researchwhenmind-sets and values are unintentionally reiterated in research

collaborations.

Oyama demonstrates, in his account based on extended and experimen-

tal field research in Niger, what it means to learn and unlearn in situations

of increasing environmental, socio-economic and political stress. He is able

to do this because for more than 15 years he returned to his research sites; he

is a learner, as well as an advocate for co-creating, with local authorities and

leaders, solutions to truly wicked problems that go far beyond his initial fo-

Conclusion 171

cus on the material basis of soil and land resources in the Sahel. His account

shows that the learning at the local level emerges in a completely different way

from what was intended by the Greening Sahel policy, and that policies that

do not address the systemic complex of the environmental, social and poli-

tical dimensions of the problem can reinforce or spur on new conflicts. This

approach of co-research and learning also speaks about managing common

pool-resources in a new and participatory way, and includes elements of ac-

tion anthropology and constitutionality. It is about trying to understand local

solutions and then involving local actors in the common research agenda; this

then leads to collectively defined actions, in which the local actors can also see

themselves as owners of the process. As Oyama provided a neutral platform

for interaction, this constellation was also enabled in a way that resonates well

with the constitutionality approach (see Haller et al. 2016, 2018).

The learning process in the article by Jewitt et al. is characterized bymulti-

stakeholder perspectives on specific events used for experimenting with the

clean cookstove technology developed for the global south in the United King-

dom (UK). Their account challenges the promotion of cookstoves and their

potential as cost-effective clean-fuel solutions, as propagated by global poli-

cy drivers. The researchers’ experiences in the UK helped them to design a

methodology for fieldwork and to compare experiments in different localities

with a view to upscaling them to enhance policy frameworks. They applied,

in their learning and knowledge production process, a fluid and varied use

of technology, taking into account socio-economic contexts and real-life si-

tuations in which the cleaner cookstoves were just an option but not the only

solution to the problem of fuel and energy shortages. Knowledge about ma-

teriality and practicability was gathered in a way that took local views and

knowledge seriously and that also created notions of co-ownership for this

process.

By doing participatory and interdisciplinary research with joint data

collection, Slezak et al. created learning environments that included social

and cultural aspects as well as institutional and legal frameworks. They show

how water and fisheries management in water storage facilities in Burkina

Faso provided the basis for a more participatory research project called SUS-

FISH (Sustainable Management of Water and Fish Resources). The basis of

this project was an interdisciplinary approach, which recognized the failure

of previous projects that were predominantly based on technical expertise.

With their transdisciplinary approach, they gathered social, economic and

political information to create pathways for more sustainable fisheries in


Burkina Faso. The very set-up of their project provided uncountable multi-

dimensional and multilevel learning processes. These are explored in more

detail in the following sections.

The specific collection of these four contributions leads us to conclude that

the dimensions of learning are expanded if there is room for critical reflection

on research processes and multiple expectations. By formulating (in writing

or speech) deeper insights and discomforts, changes of perspective on the

research process can shift paradigms and epistemological traditions.

6.3. Dimensions of participatory research

Being aware of different orders of learning can also contribute to an enhan-

ced understanding of the dimensions of participatory research in African en-

vironments. Key elements of participatory research are sequential reflection

and action. Participatory research is carried out with and by local people ra-

ther than on them.The key difference between participatory and conventional

methodologies lies in the location of power in the research process (see Corn-

wall and Jewkes 1995), which speaks to key elements of action anthropology

and constitutionality.

The four contributions in this book all have different approaches to parti-

cipatory research. Two of them were initiated by research consortia at Swiss

and German (Prudat et al.) and Japanese (Oyama) universities. Both of these

groups chose the approach of spending longer time on fieldwork in, respec-

tively, Namibia and Niger, during which they collaborated closely with local

people as well as with interpreters. For Prudat, who was trained as a natu-

ral scientist, the collaboration with his local research assistant was key to any

form of data collection and understanding of local people as well as socio-eco-

nomic circumstances. Oyama, who was trained as environmental scientist,

eventually chose the classical anthropological approach of participatory ob-

servation, which enabled him to establish relationships with local authorities

and leaders and to obtain access to local communities and their livelihoods,

as well as their increasing limitations.

The two other contributions were initiated by mixed consortia composed

of UK- and Austrian-based researchers as well as researchers from Burkina

Faso, Nigeria, Kenya and Malawi. They used their contextual and embodied

knowledge to make use of the transdisciplinary research methodology they

developed. Both groups debated their methodology in mixed teams of rese-

Conclusion 173

archers and informants of different backgrounds, sometimes in places that

were far away from the actual application of the cookstove technologies or

the fisheries management scheme. The combination of the local knowledge

of researchers from the research context (Benu state) and the involvement of

researchers with links to the administration in Burkinabè fisheries provided

a setting for structuring the research process using the shared capacities of

local as well as distant knowledge.

The four contributions lead us to conclude, in our reflection on “shared

research”, that carrying out participatory and integrative research in African

environments means being explicit about the roles of those who move in and

out of the local context and those who stay. Extended stays in local contexts

and the sharing of daily life experiences help to develop a sense of diverse

power relations in research teams as well as in researcher-researched rela-

tionships. Also, perseverance during challenging workshops and exchanges

supports the sequential reflection and action that are typical participatory

research dimensions. Key elements for more inclusive learning and better re-

search ethics are mutual respect and trust between unequal research part-

ners and those who are researched. Such research processes require careful

planning and an openness towards emerging participation while the research

progresses.That also means to accept limitations and to cope with frustration

as participatory moments can become overly complex.

6.4. Role of language and translation in interdisciplinary andintercultural research settings

Multidimensional learning and participatory research inevitably touch on dif-

ferent understandings and epistemologies, and their various expressions in

language and speech. In the participatory research set-ups described in the

contributions in this edited volume, it was inevitable that language and trans-

lation had to be addressed and worked through. These can again represent a

sort of liminal experience (see Land et al. 2014), as they challenge worldviews

and multiply the possibilities of interpretation.The translation can also act as

a way to manage the states of ambiguity or disorientation in the processes of

data collection, analysis and interpretation.

There was a moment of discomfort for Prudat et al. when it became clear

that the explicit language used in international soil classification neither did

justice to nor made sense in the context of nuanced and embodied (through


manual labour) knowledge of soils and their fertility. Prudat and his research

assistant created a way to reduce the complexity by developing a sort of code

in the translation process. They also deliberately did not deal with the data

that could not be fully deciphered and thus could not be linked to their re-

search questions. They opted for data and interpretations that built bridges

between local knowledge, which was relevant for livelihoods and agricultural

production, and the international soil classification. In this way they could

link and contextualize the local knowledge with policy measures and natural

resource management regulations. The discomfort of potentially losing out

on novelty and understanding because of decisions related to language and

interpretation is impressively described in their account.

The translation between engineers and social scientists as well as between

researchers and cookstove users locally and in the UK was a key element of Je-

witt et al.’s experimental set-up.They designed and used bake/cook-off events

as boundary spaces for enhanced understandings of cookstove use.The trans-

lation and interpretation in the various contexts in which the bake/cook-off

events were subsequently organized and in the testing of the use of cookstoves

in prolonged field research were key for their insights into the understanding

of the use and rejection of improved cookstoves.The different contexts cross-

fertilized their understanding and contributed to a greater robustness.

Translation was a central element for the nine tools of cooperation that

were used by Slezak et al. Translation spanned joint data collection, the inte-

gration of local knowledge, and gender-sensitive workshops and public con-

ferences with practitioners, decisionmakers and scientists.However, the pro-

ject had a natural scientist language orientation and, at the beginning, did not

reach a level at which discourses on findings could be translated into other

disciplines or into other social and cultural contexts. Thus, the impression

emerged that only natural science language mattered, and this was challen-

ged at the many workshops in which a more common type of language was

an issue. This meant that discussions framing the concepts by using natural

sciences would not take the project far enough, and it became evident that

social sciences, as well as local knowledge, were key elements that needed to

be incorporated.

With respect to language and translation, we conclude that openness in

the research process for corrections and greater inclusion characterizes the

approach for “sharing” in collaborative and integrative research on African

environments.

Conclusion 175

6.5. Turning points in collaborative research processes

Finally, the liminality of learning experiences, as expressed in what we call

distinct turning points, is a characteristic of the specific contributions that

make up this edited volume. In each of the four contributions it is possible

to detect such moments of experienced change. Living through these allowed

the researchers to continue to, and to complete, the next stage of the project.

In Prudat et al.’s case the turning point happened between the researcher and

the local assistant who jointly found a way to translate, interpret and, finally,

to make sense of rather controversial data and insights. The turning point in

Jewitt et al.’s account was the first bake/cook-off event that was used for the

systematic collection and understanding of diverse preferences, making use

of this boundary space for including many perspectives and opening up space

for interpretation.

In Oyama’s case, we detect a turning point after he consulted with the

village leaders and started partnering with local people to hire them for work.

In his writing, his language changes from “I” to “we”. Together, they started to

develop and test a solution to a wicked problem, that of enhancing soil fertility

and fodder production, with a potentially mitigating effect on smouldering

conflicts about land. Together they seem to have been united and determined

to create a situation thatmight enable the local people to deal with the fragility

and temporarily reduce the environmental and social pressure.

Several turning points can be detected in the account by Slezak et al.While

the project was set up as a senior-level transdisciplinary research partnership,

it was the group of students who managed to include local knowledge in the

overly expert (natural) scientific notions of the problems. The group of stu-

dents expressed an openness towards local fishery experts in the community,

and started to interact directly for longer periods of timewith local fishermen,

enabling them to shape and influence the research practice by direct commu-

nication and exchange. Like Oyama’s turning point, a joint fishing technique

was developed as a consequence of this.The joint technique allowed for a com-

parison of catch issues at the various sites. This included not only word for

word translation but also the translation of concepts concerning water and

fisheries.

In a later stage of Slezak et al.’s project, another turning point wasmarked

by the challenges emerging with respect to gender, which became important

during the different workshops. At some point it became clear that the pro-

cedures in the workshops excluded women from the discussion processes,


and implied that their knowledge mattered much less than men’s knowledge

framed in development language. This created space for more nuanced re-

flections on the inter- and transdisciplinary setting of the project. However,

it required facilitators who were open-minded and bold to address unequal

power and gender relations in the research process, which had been structu-

red as participatory and collaborative but was shaped by specific mind-sets

and epistemological traditions.

To conclude, unplanned and unanticipated chances and challenges emer-

ge in collaborative and integrative research. Being open to and respectful of

the diversity of actors, both researchers and researched, and of their percepti-

ons and contributions, can enhance learning and the facilitation of a common

understanding of key aspects in researching African environments. However,

as with the action anthropology and constitutionality approaches, these cases

show a central finding: being open to the unexpected and learning from the-

se experiences as well as reducing the power of white, male, northern-based

researchers in scientific contexts is a key element of moving towards shared

research. Only when this power asymmetry is reduced might research beco-

me more participatory, and this participatory research will also lead to better

scientific outputs, as it profits from more detailed knowledge and is a better

basis for action.

6.6. Towards shared research

This edited volume was produced with the intention of drawing attention to

the twists and turns that emerge in intercultural, interdisciplinary and trans-

disciplinary, participatory and integrative research in African environments.

Our call for “shared research” emphasizes an openness to use diverse per-

spectives and not to shy away from the complications and complexities of

local knowledge and development contexts. It should encourage and moti-

vate the creation of direct encounters between researchers and researched

in various contexts for production processes of joint knowledge, combining

various concepts of management and development. We conclude with three

final suggestions:

• Making room for long-term research engagement with extended fieldwork

stays in local and regional contexts: Long-term research engagement en-

ables local voices to be heard and understood. At the same time, it

Conclusion 177

enables local actors to be in a position to understand the views of external

researchers and experts. This happens by the sharing of everyday activ-

ities and living conditions, and is supported by applying a participant

observation research methodology. Long-term research engagements

can create trust, a key element for exchanging information with each

other and knowing that all parties are trying to understand each other.

For researchers, this requires an openness to local ways of doing and

seeing things. One researcher who adopted this principle with complete

success was none other than Alexander von Humboldt, who, while being

extremely interested in natural scientific data, always showed an interest

in local views and rationales. To him, these were as important as the

European western scientific views he represented (see Eibach 2012, Wulf

2016). In addition, contextualization matters.

• Contextualizing research projects, by referring both to diverse scientific con-

tributions (including those published more than five years ago) and to the

global drivers that shape development and livelihood contexts today: Without

a concise contextualization of legal and power-specific issues there is

little room for collaborative research. Trying to understand not what

reality is in singular terms but what the elements of the different views

on realities are is a crucial step in participatory and integrative research

in African environments. Including local views at the same level as sci-

entific language and knowledge leads to more robustness in the research

process and a better preparation for outreach and implementation of

the research results. Such shared research evolves from “they do it” to

“we do it”. Obviously, there are risks: such processes are emergent and

often unpredictable, and they can suffer from drawbacks such as those

represented in gendered patterns of knowing or epistemological domi-

nations. Contextualizing thus also means providing spaces and platforms

for direct and open discussion and constructive, inclusive debate.

• Making research processes and methodological challenges more explicit: Last

but not least, we set out one of the important lessons of this collection

of articles. “Shared research” is not a one-way street, but is full of twists

and turns as well as conflicts. An analysis of the processes that are occur-

ring, and speaking about and discussing where the team, with its differ-

ent parts and functions, stands are of central importance in finding ways

for continuing the shared research process. Being more explicit about the

research process and the methodological challenges of research endeav-

ours is a way to give justice to the multiple learning loops and the emer-


gent character of results in researching the wicked problems of today (see

KFPE 2018).

All these elements echo the beginnings of action anthropology and constitu-

tionality processes, and indicate that “shared research” can be a starting point

but must also be a self-reflective process that should anticipate the different

interests and power relations of all the stakeholders. The challenge of “shared

research” is to keep the process running in a participatory way and to miti-

gate power asymmetries. It also enables mistakes to be made but gives the

capacity to learn from and be creative about them. This edited book tries to

provide an input for this type of co-research and learning.

6.7. References

Berkes, F. (1999). Sacred ecology. Traditional ecological knowledge, and re-

source management. Philadelphia, PA: Taylor and Francis.

Bennett, J. W. (1996). Applied and action anthropology: Ideological and con-

ceptual aspects. Current Anthropology, 37(1) Supplement: Special Issue:

Anthropology in Public, 23–53.

Bornemann, B., Bernasconi, A., Ejderyan, O., Schmid, F., Wäger, P., Zingerli,

C. (2017). Research on natural resources: The quest for integration revis-

ited. GAIA, 26(1), 16-21.

Cornwall, A. and Jewkes, R. (1995). What is participatory research? Social Sci-

ence and Medicine, 41(12), 1667–1676.

Eibach, J. (2012). Tasten und Testen. Alexander von Humboldt im Urwald.

zeitenblicke, 11(1).

Fairhead, J. and Leach, M. (1996). Misreading the African landscape: Society

and ecology in a forest-savanna mosaic. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Uni-

versity Press.

Foley, D. E. (1999).The Fox project: A reappraisal. Current Anthropology, 40(2),

171–192.

Haller, T. (ed.). (2010). Disputing the Floodplains: Institutional Change and

the Politics of Resource Management in African Floodplains. African So-

cial Studies Series 22. Leiden: Brill.

Haller, T., Acciaioli, G. and Rist, S. (2016). Constitutionality: Conditions for

crafting local ownership of institution-building processes. Society and


Conclusion 179

Haller, T., Belsky, J.M. andRist, S. (2018).The constitutionality approach: Con-

ditions, opportunities, and challenges for bottom-up institution building.

Human Ecology, 46(1), 1–2.

Haller, T. Breu, T., de Moor, T. Rohr, C. and Znoj, H. (2019). Introduction on

commons in a glocal world: linking local and global systems, power pro-

cesses and local reactions in the management of common pool resources.

In: Haller, T., Breu, T., de Moor, T., Rohr, C., and Znoj, H. (eds.). The

Commons in a Glocal World Global Connections and Local Responses (pp.

1–20). London: Routledge.



Ecology, 46(1), 3–13.

KFPE (Swiss Commission for Research Partnerships with Developing Coun-

tries). 2018. A guide for transboundary research partnerships: 11 principles

and 7 questions. 3rd edition. Bern: SCNAT.

Land, R., Rattray, J. and Vivian, P. (2014). Learning in the liminal space:

A semiotic approach to threshold concepts. Higher Education, 67(2),

199–217.

Schlesier, K.H. (1980). ZumWeltbild einer neuenKulturanthropologie. Erken-

ntnis und Praxis: Die Rolle der Action Anthropology. Vier Beispiele.

Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, 105(1), 32–66.

Seithel, F. (2000). Von der Kolonialethnologie zur Advocacy Anthropology.

Hamburg, Münster: Lit Verlag.

Seithel, F. (2004). Advocacy anthropology: History and concepts. Revista An-

thropológicas, 15(1), 5–48.

Stapp,D. C. (ed.) (2012). Action anthropology. Sol Tax in 2012.The FinalWord?

Richland, WA: Northwest Anthropology LLC.

Sterling, S. (2011). Transformative learning and sustainability: Sketching the

conceptual ground. Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, 5, 17–33.

Tax, S. (1975). Action anthropology. Current Anthropology, 16(4), 514–517.

VanWilligen, J. (2002). Applied anthropology. An introduction. South Hadley,

MA: Bergin und Garvey.

Wulf, A. (2016). Alexander von Humboldt und die Erfindung der Natur. Mu-

nich: Random House GmbH.

Authors

Peter Atagher obtained his PhD from the Faculty of Engineering, University

of Nottingham, United Kingdom.

Lena Bloemertz is a senior researcher at the Centre for African Studies and the

Department of Environmental Sciences of the University of Basel, Switzer-

land.

Mike Clifford is Associate Professor at the Faculty of Engineering, University

of Nottingham, United Kingdom.

Olivier Graefe is professor of HumanGeography at the University of Fribourg,

Switzerland.

Sarah Jewitt is Professor of HumanGeography andDevelopment at the School

of Geography, University of Nottingham, United Kingdom.

Tobias Haller is professor at the Institute of Social Anthropology of the Uni-

versity of Bern, Switzerland.

Colette Kabore is collaborator at the General Directorate for Fish Resources,

Ministry of Animal and Fish Resources Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

Nikolaus Kuhn is professor of Physical Geography and Environmental Change

at the University of Basel, Switzerland.

Andreas Melcher is senior scientist at the Centre for Development Research,

BOKU University of Natural Resources and Life Science, Vienna, Austria.

182 Authors

Paul Meulenbroek is scientific collaborator at the Institute of Hydrobiology

and Aquatic Ecosystem Management, BOKU University of Natural Resources

and Life Science, Vienna, Austria.

Brice Prudat obtained his PhD in Physical Geography and Environmental

Change from the University of Basel in 2018 and is working today on the

farm “Clair Vent” in Renan, Switzerland.

AdamaOueda is collaborator at the Laboratory of Animal Ecology and Biology,

University Ouaga 1 Prof. Joseph Ki-Zerbo, Burkina Faso.

Raymond Ouedraogo is researcher at the Institute for Environment and Agri-

cultural Research, Ministry of Higher Education, Scientific Research and In-

novation, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

Shuichi Oyama is associate professor at the Center for African Area Studies

of the Kyoto University, Japan.

Charlotte Ray was a Research Fellow at the University of Nottingham and is

working today as consultant at Africa Power Ltd.

Moumini Savadogo, International Union for Conservation of Nature and its

Resources (IUCN), West and Central Africa Programme, Burkina Faso.

Jan Sendzimir is guest research scholar at the International Institute for Ap-

plied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Laxenburg, Austria.

Temilade Sesan is researcher and international development consultant at

the Centre of Petroleum, Energy Economics and Law (CPEEL), University of

Ibadan, Nigeria.

Gabriele Slezak is lecturer at the Department of African Studies, University

of Vienna, Austria.

Patrice Toe is a researcher at the Institute of Rural Development, University

Nazi Boni, Burkina Faso.

Authors 183

Henri Zerbo is collaborator at the General Directorate for Fish Resources,

Ministry of Animal and Fish Resources Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

Claudia Zingerli is scientific collaborator at the Swiss National Science Foun-

dation, Bern, Switzerland, and consultant.

All print, e-book and open access versions of the titles in our list are available in our online shop www.transcript-verlag.de/en!

Social and Cultural Studies Ashley J. Bohrer

Marxism and Intersectionality Race, Gender, Class and Sexuality under Contemporary Capitalism

2019, 280 p., pb.29,99 € (DE), 978-3-8376-4160-8E-Book: 26,99 € (DE), ISBN 978-3-8394-4160-2

Hilkje Charlotte Hänel

What is Rape? Social Theory and Conceptual Analysis

2018, 282 p., hardcover99,99 € (DE), 978-3-8376-4434-0E-Book: 99,99 € (DE), ISBN 978-3-8394-4434-4

Jasper van Buuren

Body and Reality An Examination of the Relationships between the Body Proper, Physical Reality, and the Phenomenal World Starting from Plessner and Merleau-Ponty

2018, 312 p., pb., ill.39,99 € (DE), 978-3-8376-4163-9E-Book: 39,99 € (DE), ISBN 978-3-8394-4163-3

All print, e-book and open access versions of the titles in our list are available in our online shop www.transcript-verlag.de/en!

Social and Cultural Studies Sabine Klotz, Heiner Bielefeldt, Martina Schmidhuber, Andreas Frewer (eds.)

Healthcare as a Human Rights Issue Normative Profile, Conflicts and Implementation

2017, 426 p., pb., ill.39,99 € (DE), 978-3-8376-4054-0E-Book: available as free open access publicationE-Book: ISBN 978-3-8394-4054-4

Michael Bray

Powers of the Mind Mental and Manual Labor in the Contemporary Political Crisis

2019, 208 p., hardcover99,99 € (DE), 978-3-8376-4147-9E-Book: 99,99 € (DE), ISBN 978-3-8394-4147-3

Iain MacKenzie

Resistance and the Politics of Truth Foucault, Deleuze, Badiou

2018, 148 p., pb.29,99 € (DE), 978-3-8376-3907-0E-Book: 26,99 € (DE), ISBN 978-3-8394-3907-4EPUB: 26,99 € (DE), ISBN 978-3-7328-3907-0

culture and social practice · 2020-04-03 · tobias haller (prof. dr.), born 1965, is a professor...

Documents